The Freezing Gamer
by battle manga
Summary: Jake Han woke up one morning to find levels and names above everyone heads and the understanding his world was far more then he ever thought possible. Using his new abilities Jake is going to care out a place for himself in this world and Level UP. Except no one ever said he had to be the hero while doing it.
1. Chapter 1

DC Gamer.

This story came to me after re-reading The Gamer novel one too many times. The sheer amount of possibilities is staggering and more so when you threw the DC universe in it. This story will have plenty of actions seans and some world building as well. It's a gamer fic so don't expect deep emotional development. There may or may not be a paring or two depending on how the story flows. This world is going to be tied in with the Young Justice universe as that is the one that plays in my head when I write this thing out. I Hope yall like it and Enjoy.

PS, I'v been having some trouble with formatting this story so you may notice some re- upload, sorry about that.

88888

**[Your HP and MP have been fully restored!]**

I growled and tried to punch the annoying screen from the air as it woke me up. 6 hours. That's the max I ever get to sleep. Sure, I don't technically need sleep, but I still like to! There is a reason cats nap so much after all.

But the moment that 6 hours pass my bed becomes unbearably uncomfortable and I have to get up and get active or I'd go stir crazy.

It was a teenager's worse nightmare.

Seeing as I was not going to be able to get to sleep anytime soon I got out of bed and stretched. Taking care of my morning ablutions then I got dressed in record time before saying "Statues."

Name- {Jake Han]

Title; The gamer.

LVL- 5

HP 500/500

MP 70/70

VIT- 20

STR- 15

Dex- 10

CHR- 10

INT-15(+5)

WIS- 20(+5)

LCK- 5

Skills: Gamers mind LVL MAX, Gamers body LVL MAX.

Distant memories- Absorption of an orb of Memories, Grants +5 to Int and WIS.

"Cool my STR went up another point." I smiled down at the screen. It was nice to get validation that all the work I put into bettering myself was paying off. Before I earned… Regained… acquired… well before I got these memories I was starting to get a bit overweight. Not too bad but I could see I was getting a bit too flabby and slow. I was six feet tall, so a bit of flab is still a considerable amount of weight to have to pull around.

That all changed once I got the power of The Gamer and started to hit the gym seriously using those extra memories. Turns out just going to the gym and pumping some iron all willy nilly was doing jack shit. But once the +5 WIS showed up I had the idea to research what acutely went into getting stronger. I learned so much about isometric, eccentric motions, hypertrophy, metabolic overloads and so much more my INT went up +3 when I was done.

Originally I had a STR or 2…..2 Even most of the Chess club at school had at least a 4. It was completely unacceptable. So, I joined a gym and got my STR up to 6 over two weeks before I plateaued out again. I didn't gain another point in over 2 weeks and that's when I started to do the research and learned everything I was doing was wrong. Finally correcting all my mistakes I was able to see a +1 STR about every week.

Best of all, the fat was starting to melt away. I figured out that Cardio = Vitality and STR = weighs. I only got +5 into Dex Over the last few weeks since it was still cold out and sprinting outside in winter was a big nope. Also, Dex only went up when I went into a full sprint or flip, just jogging only increased my VIT, and only marginally.

Deciding that the status page looked fine I hopped out of my room and down the stairs. "Jake, can you go to the store and buy some eggs?"

[**Quest alert**

_Your mother needs eggs to finish making pancakes. Retrieve the ingredients._

_Time Limit 10 Minutes_

_Bonus Objective. ?_

**Rewards.**

-Delicious meal, 20Exp.]

_Accept Y/N_

_Hugh I never saw a bonus objective before. I guess something else was going to happen that was going to make today a bit interesting. Hopefully, it wouldn't have anything to do with clowns._

"Sure Mama, No problem. White or brown eggs." I asked since apparently, she was very particular about her eggs. I didn't see any difference but the one time I got the wrong kind I had to go back and buy more.

"Make sure you get the natural Brown ones Jakie. Not like your father who can't tell a brown egg from a chocolate egg." My father grumbled in the corner and hit his head on the table, squishing his new paper. "One-time woman, one time."

"Still trying to make that deal with Lex Corp dad?" For the last few months dad's…..err. company. Had been trying to get Lex Luthor's attention so that they could do some business.

It wasn't going very well.

"Yes, I don't know why you still disapprove. All the businesses he takes over normally make a decent turnaround." I grimaced and raised my eyebrow at him before grabbing an apple to go.

"I think the superman obsession is a little much. Plus, the man walks around with a glowing green space rock all the time. Have you ever heard of anything that was glowing green that wasn't at least slightly radioactive? I mean come on the man hasn't even published any papers at all on the effects that glowing green rock has on humans. For crying out loud it weakens Superman. What do you think the Kryptonite can do to a normal person?" Dad grimaced but let it go. It was an old argument and we argued about it all the time. "Fine, if you want Lex to get interested in your work just say you have an interest in kryptonite and he'll contact you." My dad smiles and ruffled my hair. Checking his watch in case he was missing any time.

Yah as you could tell, we aren't exactly a normal household.

"No talking businesses at the table dear. And Jake, eggs."

Looking down at the clock I saw the time was already down a minute and I was going to fail the quest. Like hell, I was going to fail such a simple quest, so I quickly zoomed out the door and ran towards the nearest seven eleven.

Gotham city in movies, comics and cartoons were often portrayed as a dark dreary place that looked like it was designed by a Gothic priest. Gargoyles on every roof and a dark ally in every corner. And if you were in downtown. You would be right.

My memories said they used to live in a place called Chicago. Now Chicago was normally a relatively dangerous place on its own. But Gotham city had it beat hands down. Imagine if you were walking under the tunnel systems of Chicago with trains, cars, and buses driving overhead and piles of litter everywhere. Yeah, that's basically most of downtown Gotham.  
You had to ask yourself why anyone would live in a place that had such a high crime rate and crazy people.

The answer was simple.

Money!

We were on the coast of a series of rivers and lakes, so we had one of the best shipping industries in the world. Add in the long line of Factories and all the scientists and you had an international trading hub that held a good portion of the world's economy.

So naturally, there was always job openings for factories, mils, and other things. Drawing in everyone that needed work to our humble little city. At least until the city chewed them up and spat them back out poorer than when they came and just this side of cray. Those Mobsters and gangsters all came from somewhere you know.

Took me only 3 minutes to get down to the 7/11 with my enhanced speed. Nothing a normal person couldn't reach but was unlikely to.

It was simple to get the eggs but once I was at the cash register things went to hell rather quickly.

"Hands up and give me all the money!" Two goons in Clown masks walked into the store with shotguns. The two goons must have been part of the Jokers gang and were using third-hand shotguns that looked like they never once saw a day of maintenance in their life.

I quickly glanced over the two's heads and looked at the levels.

[Joker Gang Recruit- LVL 2]

[Joker Gang Recruit- LVL 3]

The same day I got Gamer powers I was able to see the levels of people. A person level usually corresponded with their level of power. Most average people were a 4-5 range. I was an exception since I deliberately distributing my points. So, the two idiots were about as threatening as kittens to me.

"You too buddy, give us your wallet." The lower level of the two crooks walked over to me and shoved the Shotgun into my face. It would have been intimidating if the safety wasn't on.

"What the hell do you two think you're doing? Did you not get the memo?" I asked. These two looked like they were new to this, so I wanted to capitalize on that. The store manager looked in my direction, but he wasn't exactly too worried. He knew I was 'special' from all the times he saw me lifting things I should not have been able to lift.

The Level 3 guy tilted his head in confusion before asking. "What memo? I didn't hear about any memo." Oh dear Loki I could almost see a question mark above his head.

I made a show of facepalming before explaining. "As of last month, this section of Gotham is under the protection of the Penguin." I could see from their body language that they were both confused and nervous.

"Um who?" The lower level one asked, making even his buddy turn to him with what I assumed was a 'what the fuck' expression.

"Dude, The Penguins one of the five Crime lords of Gotham. Didn't they cover that in orientation?" Wait? Gangs now had an orientation? Good to know.

"Yup, listen to your buddy here. Anyway, this guy already pays protection money to the Penguin gang to keep his shop from getting mugged. Now you're here, I'm assuming from the Joker gang, and you're messing with that." I pointed to a little innocuous picture of a Penguin in flight on the window. It was cartoony and childish, but it told everyone just who protected this store.

The 3 level guy stopped and tried to use what little intelligence he had to figure out what I was getting at. "So? Were the joker gang. We don't have to listen to Featherbrains." He puffed out his chest as if being the jokers whipping boy was some sort of achievement.

God, he was even dumber then I thought he was. "You do know the Joker and Penguin went into an alliance like three weeks ago. If you brake it so soon, what do you think the Clown Prince of Crime's going to do to YOU."

Both looked at each other for a moment, then another. Then the LVL 3 guy seemed to have a mysterious stain seep into his pants. "Oh, sweet mother of god, we are so dead. We are so So sorry sir, Please don't tell the boss. Were leaving."

And just like that, they ran out the door leaving nothing but a puddle on the floor. The man mounting the counter let loose a shaky breath. I guess he was rather nervous despite his stony expression. "Let me ring those eggs up for you." I smiled and handed over the five for the eggs. Trying hard not to burst out into laughter. I failed.

[Quest - complete

Reward-20exp, Bonus award – Gang Map.]

I opened my inventory and pulled out the new Map that was now placed in there. Inventory? Oh, yeah. An inventory is a storage space that I could shove something into and call it up whenever I wanted. It made things like bags and pockets obsolete.

After reading through the details from my Help Menu I learned that the inventory stored whatever I wanted in my Soul Space. At the moment my Soul Space was about the size of a bedroom, but in the future, I should be able to easily expand it by increasing my MANA Capacity. It was really nice having an inventory. I didn't have to worry about a stolen wallet ever again. And since it was in my Soul I could call up anything I wanted even in other dimensions. In theory.

[Gang Map]

"WOW. I think I just hit the jackpot." It was a full map of Gotham city with road maps and buildings and everything. It also highlighted all the gang-controlled areas in the city.

The Black Masks gang held a considerable portion of the north of Gotham where the ports were. Considering that his main source of business was smuggling it made sense for him to want to control the shipyards.

The Penguin gang controlled a small but powerful section of the west. Mostly focused around the Richer parts of Gotham where he could pretend to be the rich and affluent member of society he was not.

The joker had a mismatch of random buildings covering the entire city, no one place had any consistency. Then again why would you ask for consistency from the joker?

Two-face held down the east end of the city. I'm not actually sure what he dealt in but I'm sure it wasn't good.

All the other heavy hitters in the city had random pockets here and there, not too big that it could be considered a whole territory but still something to keep an eye on.

There were even small sections with tiny little bat symbols on them. You get a cookie if you can guess what those mean.

The map didn't show where every heavy hitter in the city was. That was a shame, but I could at least see who had the power in this city.

I stuffed the Map back into my inventory and savored the Delicious meal mama made. "Hmm, Map latter Pancakes now."


	2. The obligatory ID

Chapter 2

888 888 888

[Instant dungeon creation successful.]

{New Skill created- Instant Dungeon Create]

Zombie I.D created

I stared in shock at my screen and grinned from ear to ear before hollering in triumph. I hooped hollered and generally made myself look like all types of crazy. But then again this was Gotham. That was a normal Tuesday for us.

I've been trying to create a Dungeon for the last Month! Anytime I had a spare moment I would flex my mana and Will the world to bend to my will. I remembered that the Character I used to read about in the original The Gamer web cartoon had abused the hell out of them to get uber powerful. It was a great series but some of the things he could do easily is a little harder for me. Like being able to make these dungeons.

Anyway, the Instant Dungeons were essentially an illusionary barrier. A subspace that most magical in the world use to recklessly fight in. Because apparently two magically enhanced people meeting up is a fifty/fifty shot for a fight. The problem with that is that most Magical fights were the type to make Metropolis look like Gotham by the end.

Since I didn't want my city to look like an Apocalypse survivors wet dream I tried to create a dungeon.

Most of the creatures that inhabited the dungeon were physical representations of Dead malevolent spirits. Harmless to most people but can be a real threat if they are allowed to form together into a demon.

And today I finally succeeded.

"YES, Alright Zombies, get ready, I'm about to whoop your asses." I smashed my fist into my palm and began my search of the local area. It was a lightly wooded suburb with high walls and plenty of trees, bushes and flower beds. A surprisingly good place for your average zombie to hid in.

"URGGH." Grinning widely, I spotted one of the undead Zombies hobbling along the street. "Oh, sweet Loki's, this thing is disgusting. Gah, I can smell it from here."

I pinched my nose and slowly backed away. My original plan was just to pummel any zombie I came across but if that dripping skin was any indication I didn't want their zombie goop anywhere near my skin.

Shudder

I reached into my inventory and pulled out a Metal bat for just such an occasion. I could have used a sword or a gun but logically those weren't effective against zombies. For one, you needed to always hit headshots with a gun for it to work against a zombie and I wasn't good against a moving target. So, the most a bullet could do was make a small hole and some bleed effects. That was assuming the head even controlled it and not some abstract magical field.

Same problem with a sword. Sure, you could cut them much more effectively but unless you have the strength and precision to cut off an arm bone it was also only going to Cut into its mussel and that's it. It was a lot more effective than a gun but not quite as effective as I'd like. Plus, Swords lose Durability incredibly fast. I tested a random sword on a random tree and it lost 1/10 its durability with the first swing.

But a Mace, Bat or even crowbar? Now your talking. Why try and cut a bone in half with your Shiny Katan or Falchion when all it would do is cause a few lacerations and chip your sword? It made far more logical sense to use a blunt object to just crush the bones and disable the zombies.

"Observe" Observe was a spell that would give me some details on whatever item or person I was looking at. If my theory was correct it was a limited version of Omniscience that would let me see the truth of a person or thing.

[Metal Bat- Common- Durability 95/100: Damage Str-+30.]

Using blunt force also felt good.

It was a normal bat I picked up from the local supplies store. I also had a few crowbars and hammers in case it turned out a bat wasn't the best option or it somehow broke.

"OWW." While I was lost in my thoughts the Zombie had used the opportunity to get a running start at me and had pushed me down onto the ground. I was so surprised that I punched out and hit the zombie in the face. This stunned it for only a second, but I was able to get away with a well-placed kick. "Ok, note to self, Zombies are still dangerous." I then whipped my Gross and slick hand on a shirt that was hanging by wires. I think I was in someone's back yard.

I looked up at the HP bar of the zombie and saw that its bar only went down a tiny little sliver. "Oh, come on." I bemoaned. That was a decent punch and it did next to nothing to the LVL 1 Zombie.

Irritated and frustrated that I was still so week I swung my bat like an amateur batter and hit the mindless drone square over the head.

The zombie rocked back but it still stood. A quick glance at the HP bar showed it lost about a quarter of its health. I grimaced and kept beating at the zombie till its health Finally hit 0. It took five hits, but the Zombie finally disintegrated into black smoke.

(+50 EXP)

"Well finally!" I said I exasperation. I like a good fight as much as the next (Gotham) guy. But this wasn't a fight, it was more like hitting a training dummy.

I was so distracted by my thoughts that I almost missed the shimmering sparkle that was in the smoke. Quirking a brow, I leaned over and picked up the two gleaming items.

"Observe"

[Rotten Zombie tooth- A tooth infused with the dark magic of a zombie. Can be used for alchemy."

[1$]

I grinned at the loot and wanted to do a little dance. "YERS." I wondered if the Dungeons would work the same as in the Web Comic. I really wanted to know if I could grind out money from them and interesting loot.

I tossed both items into my inventory and traded in my Bat for a Crowbar. The bat's durability had suffered a bit and didn't want to take the chance of it breaking on me. The Crowbar had three times the durability but only 25 damage. It was designed to be sturdy but not to swing around.

I made a mental note to check with the local bank to see if the money was real. I wasn't about to quit my day job but if I could find a way to start making some money through these dungeons then I might have more time to write my book.

"WOW," I said as I was knocked off my feet again. This time however I was a tiny bit more prepared and already had the crowbar in front of me. Just In time to catch the jaws of another zombie.

"Oh, dear lord. The smell." The smell coming off that mouth should be labeled a biohazard with how foul and putrid it was. It was like week-old garbage during a heat wave. Just nauseating.

I kicked the Zombie out and scrambled off.

"Observe"

[Zombie LVL 8]

HP 800

MP 50

Skills- Superhuman Strength, Superhuman Durability, Superhuman Stamina.

"Ok, so you're a bit better, let's do this."

This time it took a good twenty whacks with my crowbar to make the Zombie disintegrate. It was still slow in comparison to the nimbleness of a human. But it was faster than the first one, so I had to concentrate to make sure the wild swings didn't hit me.

Since the low-level zombies might as well have been moving punching bags I continued my little anger management session until at least twenty more was dead and I gained +1 to my STR stat and +1 Dex.

Loot – Zombie teeth x17, Dollars-10$, Zombie Rib. Magic Stone shard X 5

Skill – Blunt force LVL 5 – Boosts the damage done by blunt force weapons by 10%.

The loot sucked for now, but I wasn't really expecting anything too crazy from the beginning. All gamers know that the first day of a game gives you only common and worthless loot.

"Yah, this loot sucks, though I got to wonder if I can actually use this in alchemy as the discretion said and where I could get an alchemy book. At least I should be able to use the Magic shards eventually. I've seriously got to think of a way to hit the zombie faster. Or at least from farther away. HMM, maybe I can try and casting magic?"

Smirking to myself I pointed one of my fingers at the zombies and almost jokingly pulled mana into my finger. "Pistol shot," I said and winced when the mana in my hand gave me a static shot instead of doing anything.

"Warning Mana Manipulation too low!"

"Ok, so I'm on the right track at least." For the next hour, I tried different ideas on how to force a spell out. I tried everything from saying Abra Kadabra, doing a little jig to trying to blast off a Kamehameha wave. That last one blasted me off my feet and took -100hp off my 500 hp of health.

It was only after GENTLY pushing out some Mana through the palm of my hand that I was able to make a baseball sized ball of glowing blue Mana. Just after creating this mana bolt I received multiple notifications.

Considering the webtoon, I really should have started with a mana ball.

+5 Wis

New Skill- Mana Bolt Lvl 1 10/100 exp – A simple concentrated ball of mana that does 100 damage + Int. Cast time 2s Hold time 10s, the longer you hold the Bolt the more mana it consumes but the more damage you will achieve. MAX 10s. 10% chance to knock down the enemy.

Skill recorded in your spellbook.

New Skill – Mana Manipulation LVL1 20/100 exp- Since time immemorial all beings of magic have learned to harness the mana within to bend the world around them to their will. Manipulate the Mana within your body to cast spells.

"I have a spell book?" Closing the pages, I looked around my menu screen until I found a little book symbol on my inventory screen. "Hugh do not remember that being there before or in the Webtoon."

A large Green tome with nothing but a leather cover popped into existence and I quickly grabbed it before it could fall. Opening the book, I only found the one spell Mana Bolt with a small tab stating, (no derivatives).

"No derivatives? What does that mean? Does that mean I can change the spell?" I opened my palm again and tried to make another mana bolt. This time experimenting with the dosage and adding a spin if you would.

"Boom"

"Cough, well that didn't work."

"URRGH" Looking down the street I could see a dozen Zombies clambering down the road to me. Figuring that a little target practice wouldn't hurt I reeved up a Mana bolt and shot it at the Zombies.

'Zoom, boom.'

Correction I shot it passed the zombies and into a stone wall.

I could have died there and then from the embarrassment.

"Ok, no headshots, just aim for a body shot." I created another mana bolt and this time aimed at the mass of zombie's chests. That sounded so wrong even in my head. The Bolt shot and hit one of the Zombies on the side, knocking it back on its feet and taking out about 80-90% of its HP.

I nearly whooped in joy but stopped myself since it would just attract more of the brainless dead.

They may be slow and had next to no intellect, but they were still durable and strong. I could take down three or four just fine. But a hoard? Yah, no.

I shot off another of the Mana Bolts but on the third one, I got an error stating [Insufficient Mana].

Frowning I looked at my MP bar and saw it was close to empty, with a tiny little trickle refilling itself. There wasn't really anything I could do at the moment so I hefted my crowbar and began waking at the Zombies again. This time with a little more success with the added level boost from [Blunt force]

Loot: Zombie Teethx7, Spellbook, Frosty mallet.

Level Up!

"Hmm, that's the second level up today. Does being in an I.D make it easier to get new skills and level up or is it that I'm destroying my enemies instead of just defeating them?"

"URgu, Crash"

I slowly looked over my shoulder and watched as all the wandering zombies that had before just aimlessly walked about were now all staring right at me!

"Oh, Bugger."

Five minutes later.

"ESCAPE I.D"

I screamed again as the zombies Behind me gained speed. Yes, they were slow, but when they really wanted to move, nothing was going to get in their way. I was having flashbacks of Z-Day just looking at it.

[Mana insufficient]

{Escape I.D – 50MP.]

I looked down at my mana bar and saw 45/100 mp. The rate at which I was regenerating was about 1 mana point per minute, and I was almost out when the hoard started to run at me. Thankful the perk Gamers Body made it, so I could run nearly indefinable. Bad news? There were plenty of Gates and walls in the way. And it was still painful to keep running. Gamers mind and body just worked to make that

MP 50/100

DEX + 1…

Not now!

"ESCAPE I.D"

'Crack' like a mirror the world shattered around me. The zombies disappeared, and the normal sounds of Cars, trains, horns, and guns replaced the eerie silence of the Dungeon. I didn't know I'd miss the sound of the wind this much.

I learned a lot today and I knew that there was a lot more I needed to do if I was going to conquer that zombie dungeon any time soon. Especially since it seemed I could only really make decent improvements in the dungeons.

"Tomorrow. I can experiment tomorrow. For now, beds calling." I shook off the grime of the dungeon that followed me and made my way home.


	3. Chapter 3 The Crew

**Chapter 3**

**Hi, guys. This is my Favorite chapter so far. So, I made sure to make it especially nice. All the comments and faves are really encouraging. Especially since flames and bad reviews are scary. But so far, after a few bumps, things have been going ok. I've been thinking about introducing partners for Jake and wanted some suggestions? **

**Aslo I do not own any of these caraters or locations. I'm not nearly that good. **

888 888 888 8888

"How exactly did I get into this mess?" I asked myself as I was tied down with a bunch of men. We were all handcuffed together and placed into the back of a storage room in a warehouse at the docks. "I could have sworn I was just fishing, like, five minutes ago?"

"**Observe**"

[Marco Diaz}

Level 50

Title – Banes right hand

A member of the Bane mercenary group.

[Hp,600 MP-Locked. STR-40 Dex-20 Int-35]

[Marco Diaz was normal (NOT) boy before one of the local cartels had a change in leadership and his whole town became a war zone. After being rescued by Bane after his hostile takeover Marco joined Banes Mercenary troops.]

Alignments- Bane-honor- neutral.

**Skills**\- Hand to Hand Mastery, Weapons Mastery, Enhanced Strength- minor, Enhanced Durability, Enhanced perception, Enhanced Stamina, Scholler.

Marco grunted and maneuvered himself off the floor so that he was sitting up against the walls. A few trickles of blood slid down his head and dripped onto the floor. It was a head wound so it was either nothing or very serious. From here I couldn't tell which.

I wondered if I should help these guys and myself escape? They were Mercenaries and I really didn't want to get involved in a turf war between crime lords.

Technically Banes men fall into that legal gray area that any decent mercenary group working for governments would take. On paper, they were a legitimate Mercenary group that worked around the world for whoever paid them the most money. As far as allegiances go they were the definition of neutral. Neither swearing service to any villain or Hero.

On the flip side, they were also peddled Venom to whoever wanted it. It was the drug of choice for most Athletes, fighters, and people with image issues. Personally, I thought taking drugs to make yourself stronger was only acceptable in emergency situations. It wasn't even a moral choice but a logical one on my part.

I was a game character. Drugs like that worked on me for 20 minutes at most then the de-buff hit me like a freight train. Don't ask me how I know that.

"Whom the hell are you kid?" The man finally noticed that there was another person in the room. He looked just as confused as me, but I'd give him points for not panicking. I had Gamers mind, he didn't so it was more admirable from him.

I cast my gaze back up at him and looked at his level. It was leagues above the normal 3-5 level that even most adults could boast. So either this man had so much battle experience that he dwarfed another person ten times over or he was a lower level Meta that still looked human.

His level was at least three times that of even Penguins Mafioso and the Penguin only hired quality men. So that meant that despite Bane having one of the smallest presences in Gotham his overall power was probably double that of the other gangs. I got to give respect where respect is due.

I realized that I had been staring for a while now.

"Urg, Sorry got hit over the head. You can call me Jake. Your one of Banes men, right?" I pointed to the skull like a motif on his chest that looked like a replica of Banes mask. Anyone who knew anything about the crime world of Gotham at least knew the various marks each faction held.

"Yah, we got ourselves ambushed on a routine delivery. God that's embarrassing. Any idea who got us?" I nodded and shuffled my way onto my back then sat up. The bindings were really digging in and were getting annoying.

"Yeah, they tried to hide, but I recognized one of Black masks men." Well more like I [Observed] them but he didn't need to know that. "Since I'm big, bulky and training they probably thought I was with you guys."

Marco huffed and stretched out his neck before responding. "Dang, sorry about that kid. This doesn't really have anything to do with you. But it looks like was stuck together for now. What kind of training ya got, ninio?"

[**Quest alert- Sneak out**.]

[You have been mistakenly Captured by the Black Mask Mafia to be interrogated about Bane Shipping lines. Find a way to escape.]

[**Reward**s- +100 Reputation with Bane Gang, Skill book, 20,000 EXP, 400$.].

Bonus reward for sneaking out without getting spotted.

[Failure, - Death, -10000 Reputation with the Bane Merc Clan. Immense pain, gruesome experimentation.]

I quickly accepted the quest. I didn't really have any reason to trust these guys, but I also wanted to live and get out of this. Besides out of all the gangs in the city Banes at least had health insurance.

Also, I really did not want to be experimented on.

"I got a few years of Karate and what I could scrounge up from books, a few years of Weight lifting, I'm in college for a degree in engineering, minor in biology.' "Snap" "And also magic." I tore off the now cut rope from myself and pretended to stretch. I didn't really need to anymore since Gamers Body basically made all damage into HP loss and left my Body in constant top condition. It really was a broken as all hell skill, but in a world of Alien invasions, Killer clowns and Amazon warriors I was taking no chances.

Marco raised an eyebrow but didn't ask about the magic and merely extended his own roped palms up. I quickly cut them off and the ropes of the three other mercenaries in the room.

I had no idea how to wake someone up from unconsciousness, but Marco took some sort of Smelling salt from his pocket and opened it next to the first unconscious guy.

I could smell the Slat from here and it was powerful stuff. I could see how someone would wake up from having been exposed to it.

Soon the three other Mercs, Carlos, James, and Dabi, were up and ready for action. "Ok, on the count of three we try to break the door, as quietly as possible. Then we work from there." Marco said as he got ready to break down the door.

"Wait," I said, the Higher WIS score kicking in. "Can't believe I almost missed this. Here use these." I opened my inventory and took out three crowbars, a regular ax, and the Magical mallet that the Zombie dropped in the Dungeon. To them, it must have looked like I was pulling things out of thin air.

The group stared at me before Dabi smacked Marco over the head. "Why did you not tell us he was wizard?" The man pulled out a small pendant that glowed in the dark, sparkles appeared around the man before subsiding. The other three quickly followed his lead to my confusion.

"Um, what was that?" I asked. They grabbed the weapons I laid out and I grabbed the Frosty mallet I won from the Zombies.

Dabi stepped up and leaned in, whispering in case of bugs. "Magic leaves a residue kid. It draws in everything for miles and is a pain to get rid of. So, we have these pendants shield us from the reside. It won't stop a magical attack but at least with this, we won't be attacked by every two-bit spirit in the city. Any decent mage should know it. That's why we're pissed at Marco for not telling us." Dabi punctuated the statement by hitting Marco over the head.

Marco clutched the back of his head again before Jake and Mark could hit him as well. "Hey, I was going to mention it, eventually. I didn't know if he was one of those hidden suppers, ya know."

Dabi shook his head and picked up one of the crowbars. "Hmm, good weight." He shrugged and hefted the pendant again. "A couple of years back when Bane and the rest of us were building up Santa Prisca we were attacked by a band of Magi. We, of course, slaughtered the arrogant pricks, but the problem came afterward. Demons, Zombies, Restless spirits, you name it. We had a problem with it. Boss Bane brought in this mystic Man to cleanse the place. Gave us a quick lesson being safe around magic."

I was surprised to hear that Bane already had experience with magic. I knew that most heroes and villains rarely ever dealt with magic unless they were specifically magic oriented.

According to Dabi Magical Residue was like radiation. Even a trace amount will have every low-level magical being converging on your location unless you have adequate protection. I didn't remember there being anything like that in the web novel, so I must assume that it was an in-universe thing. I'd have to see if my own magic radiated anything latter.

"That explains the amulet. And don't worry about me being super. My dad's a black-market engineer and my mothers a Night Nurse. I don't think I'll be swinging off the Gotham Skyline with Batman anytime soon." That got a quiet chuckle from everyone.

Marco squared his shoulders and amended his plan a little. Instead of just breaking down the door like before they used the crowbars to take apart the hinges on the door. Making breaking down the door as simple as pulling on the hinges and reducing the sound made to just a few small bangs.

On the other side of the door, in a laid-back easy chair sat a sleeping guard with his hat over his face and drool going down his face. I pointed at him in incredulity, but Marco shook his head in disappointment. My best guess was that he was ashamed to have been taken down by a group of half-wits.

We silently creped past him and fanned out, searching the building for an exit. The four of them worked well together and I imagine that was how a military unit operated. Each person covered the others back. I was left at the rear since I had the least amount of experience. Only enough experience to sneak around, I'd be abysmal in a firefight.

We ran into two Guards on our way out, but we quickly dispatched them and hid them in a closet. By the time they were found we would be long gone. It was when we were walking up a rafter that we ran into a small snag.

Just below us were Black Mask himself and several his goons surrounding a table with maps, graphs and plenty of notes. I spied Marco and how he looked like he really wanted to know what was on those sheets. But I saw him look at me in concern. He probably didn't want to get me involved any more than I already was.

Smiling to myself I decided I would help them out a bit. If they had just gone in without considering me I would have blown them off, but I liked these guys and would like to help them out. Besides it never hurt to have someone like Bane in your debt. Gotham was and will always be a crazy madhouse and a powerful friend could save me a ton of pain and suffering.

I motioned to Marco and pointed to myself than to the table, trying to come across that I could take the table. I then motioned to the door leading over and to the stack of old factory equipment behind me. He seemed to get my message and beamed at me.

I watched them pick up a box and slink out of sight. I was envious of that kind of sheer talent and skill.

I waited till a large BOOM sounded out of the corner. If the guys were smart they would have clogged up some piece of machinery so that anyone going to investigate would assume that it was faulty equipment.

"What are you waiting for, A invitation?" Black skull yelled out, at once his goons ran out the door to see what the fuss was about. Leaving the Skull alone.

I admit I knew a little about the Skull in passing as well as a bit from the various Batman shows, but not all that much really. I could only reasonably be confident the only real power he had was that metallic mask on his face.

I was on a thin catwalk right above him. Yes, I could try and use a spell, but my spell range was still limited. Mana Bolt and Mana Blast were the only attack spells I had, and they were both bright and showy. The opposite of what I needed.

So that left me with one option.

As silently as I could I jumped off the catwalk and swung down the mallet towards Black Masks head. He must have heard something off because he turned around. I still hit him over the head but instead of hitting the back of his head I hit the Mask part instead. He still crumpled down like a ragdoll but the resounding 'Ding' from the metal hitting the mask was nearly defining in the large room.

Acting quickly, I tossed everything into my inventory. Documents, charts, even the Table. Watching the table warp itself into my inventory was gross. My fingers fumbled every now and then but soon 'Gamers Mind' smoothed out my panic and I was able to calmly put away all the documents.

I then high tailed it out of there and ran out the only open window I could find. I less jumped out the window and did a more controlled Crash. Seeing that my Hp went down by -50HP I suspected I might have had a few broken bones if not for Gamers body. Hearing 'Snap' 'Snap' coming off my arms was bizarre and Painful.

But a few moments after hitting the ground it was like I never got injured at all.

"Take that Deadpool and your OP healing factor."

I shuffled as far away from the building as I could, keeping in mind that the Black Mask Gang could be coming after me any minute, with guns. I never got shot before and I rather not start until I know a spell to bulletproof myself.

"Note to self-find a way to block bullets." Before I knew it, I had made it out to the docs and hid inside the gap of two crates. It was the only place I could see that would let me look out but not get me caught.

[New Skill- Stealth- Level 1 – Increases the chance of remaining unseen, increases the chance for a critical strike.]

I was focusing so much on my surroundings that when the screen popped up it startled me into yelping. I clamped my hands over my mouth to stifle the scream.

'_Why did I get the notice now? Is the system trying to kill me?'_

I swiped the screen away just in time to spy Marcos group, crouched down, making their way to one of the boats. The only thing covering them was that the steps down to the boats were those big blocky pyramid-like blocks that were there to keep down floods.

They were more or less hidden, but I could see that one of Black Masks goons poking around the area, right next to where they were hiding.

Gulping I relied on my New stealth skill and made my way right behind the Searching man.

Right as he found Marco and his group I struck and knocked him out with a quick jab to his back, neck and a hard hit to the head. He fell forward, dropping his gun, and alerting the four that we were there.

I waved down and dropped, hopping into one of the non-descript boats. Marco opened one of the closets and fished out, life jackets, a few fishing poles, and hats.

In moments we looked like every other fishing vessel on the pier.

"Finally, I thought for sure we were goners this time. James said as he cast out his fishing pole. Marco and Carlos both lit up a cigar and sat down heavily by the controls. "Stop being so negative James, we got out that's all that matter."

{**Quest cleared**. - Escape from Black Mask.}

[Bonus objective reached- Do not be seen during the escape]

[+100 Reputation with Bane Gang, Skill book, 20,000 EXP, 400$.]

[Bonus Reward – Sorcerers manual.]

Grinning I accepted the rewards and looked at my inventory to see that the materials had all transferred over. I didn't want to have to cleanse the boat of magic, so I did take any of them out yet. But I was excited to see what I got once I got back home.

A hand on my shoulder made me tense but the smell of Tobacco made me realize that Marco was the one behind me. "Thanks for all the help kid. And again, I'm sorry we got you into this mess in the first place. Black mask's been gunning for Boss Banes distribution lines for ages and I think he wanted us to spill his secrets. You did us a solid. Here if you ever need any training, and I do mean real Training, give us a call." Marco flipped a card over.

**[Banes Invitation**\- You have been granted an invitation to study under Marco Diablo of the Bane Mercenary group. Title Martial Apprentice: + 30% growth rate to all skills while under Marco's tutelage.}

I closed the window but couldn't stop the smile from reaching my face. Marco looked a little wearied out with the gestures and the disappearing card.

Since I didn't want my new 'friends' to fear me I tried to explain my motions as best I could.

"I made my magic invisible first chance I got. Those gestures are just me interacting with them. I'd rather someone spying on me see a few worthless gestures that won't tell them squat about what I'm doing then see my real magic at work. I'll think about your offer. I still have about half a year left in college but then I'll be free. Oh, before I forget." I reached into my inventory and pulled out the desk with all Black mask's papers.

Most of my explanation was B.S and I didn't even know if anyone else could see my screens but its best to spread false information out there while I can. It wasn't even technically a lie.

The four stared at the table warped into existence. Gingerly Marco and Dabi looked over the paperwork before James and Carlos pocket the magic pendants. James seemed to realize something before he whirled on me and said, "Hammerspace, you totally have hammerspace."

I just smiled before taking out a carrot from my inventory and saying "ehh, What up doc?" Somehow this poorly used joke managed to get a chuckle out of them.

Turns out that all of them except Carlos used to be huge nerds growing up and spent most of their days geeking out. They only got bigger and stronger after joining Bane and his Group. But that didn't stop them from still Playing BattleTech tabletop games every few weeks.

"Wait, Bane, The Head honcho, and Legendary Masked Luchadores is a Battle Tech Game master?" I could hardly believe my ears. You never really saw Bane just chilling out in the comic books or Cartoons, he was always working on some plan or thwarting batman.

"Yeah, man. The Bossman loves the game, we got a game board ten feet wide and little figures to go with it too. I play the dashing hotshot pilot with advanced piloting skills but low physicality. Marco plays the mechanic and Dabie plays the lawyer for some reason. But Carlos here insisted on creating a carter with Absurdly high Physical states and next to no actual piloting skills. A complete jarhead yah, know. The boss keeps telling him he can change his character at any time since he keeps rolling shit dice, but he never does." Carlos nodded his head and turned back to the controls, he was not a man of many words but according to his level of 58, he was very strong.

"Hey, Jake looks like this is your stop. Try and keep out of trouble ya hear?" I smirked back and jumped out of the boat as it neared the pier and waved my new friends goodbye.

End chapter 3.


	4. Experimentation

Chapter 4

Name- {Jake Han]

Title; The gamer.

LVL- 20

Exp 434/40,000

HP 2000/2000

MP 7000/7000

VIT- 45

STR- 21

Dex- 33

CHR- 11

INT-55(+5)

WIS- 25(+5)

LCK- 19

I smacked my head against my desk. "Stupid, Stupid, Stupid." I made the same mistake all new gamers made when they got a new 'hot' game. I ignored the manual and just stumbled my way through everything like a half-blind rabbit.

I glanced over at the Copy of The Sorcerers manual. It was the reward for the black mask mission and was full of helpful tips and tricks that would help any person along their path of magic. The issue was that most of the things it mentioned I could have found out by reading more of my help menu. And I just ignored it like an inferior pion.

It explained so much about how my magic worked and other things I would need to know on the path of Sorcery.

One passage came to mind.

"The one aspect of sorcery that all Practitioners of Magic will agree on as vitally important is the need for Preparation. Unlike Martial Artists, Mutates and other powered beings Sorcerers need to prepare before their battles. Sorcerers use Mana. Mana can quickly be depleted during a fight. Even the greatest Sorcerers know, weather Gods or mortal, all spend weeks if not months in advance preparing for battles.

A Magician that does not prepare is a dead magician walking. And not the Undead kind either."

It was so simple, and yet it took a book written by a person not even in my own dimension to figure it out.

Basically, Sorcerers were different than other wizards or Magical beings because their power came from their own internal stores. Unlike say, Dr. Fate. Clarion or even the Atlanteans, who used an external power to fuel their magic craft. We sorcerers were wholly dependent on our own small stores of mana to get the job done. So, we overcompensated by being prepared for everything. For example, if a Sorcerer even thought that they might fight in water one day, you could bet they would have something prepared months if not years beforehand just for the possibility.

I was kicking myself for not even investing any real-time in preparation.

"I have a dungeon with drops that can prepare me for anything and I've hardly even experimented in it. Well no more. No more ignorance. No more being caught unaware, from now on I'm being a proper Sorcerer."

[+1 WIS]

I reached back to the book and rescanned the whole thing from top to bottom and made a game plan for how I was going to survive this insane world.

For starters, I would need a way to grind power. Killing off random zombies was good and was steadily increasing my own mana reserves. Exhausting myself with the training had nearly tripled my available mana capacity. But the benefits were now tapering off each zombie was barely even gaining me 1 Exp any more.

The increased understanding of my Abilities also helped me in my grinding as well. While trying to grind my STR was all well and good it would do nothing for my magical abilities. I liked to punch things as much as the next guy but if I'm facing someone seriously id rather just shoot from a distance. Magic allowed that, but Punches did not. My Magic was derived from my Int and my WIS skill, both increased as my studies grew, and riddles helped my WIS skill as well.

I still had no idea what I could do to Increase charisma other than maybe tell entertaining stories. It had only gained one more point since I got my abilities.

Then there was LCK. After reading threw my menu I realized that LCK was the chance of me getting a better drop. As soon as I dumped +10 into my LCK as an experiment I saw an increase in both the amount of money I was making as well as the overall quality of Drops.

I started to acquire these little gems called Mana crystals. According to the book they were very rare but could be used to aid a sorcerer with his spell casting.

I experimented as much as possible with the small crystal shards. First, I tried to see what happened when I just pumped some mana into them and discovered that after a certain threshold they broke apart. Further experimentation showed that the crystals functioned as a magical focus. They had very little mana on their own but shaping mana with them was a lot easier.

Further experimentations would need to be conducted on how the crystal shards react with different spells, organic matter, and how a crystal of a different size effect spells.

I suspected I was on the precipice of something in the Zombie dungeon as well. I don't know why but I just got this odd feeling after killing large amounts of Zombies. One time My [Danger Sense] skill even activated, and I high tailed it out of there.

Like hell, I was going up against something that activated that skill without preparation!

Another thing I discovered was that skill books were Awesome but required a high INT skill to take in. I had to dump the remaining points I had available into my INT score and once again double my mana capacity just to learn the book I earned from the Black Mask Quest.

[Beginners Guide to Ice Magic.] Vol.1

At first, I was a bit disappointed with it. After all, everyone loves to burn things to a crisp with fire or blow things away with air only to see them crash or even threw large rocks with Earth magic. But honestly whoever really wants ice? It was a week element that most protagonists either punched threw or exploded. Hell, the total number of ice villains in the world was like 10 in comparison to the hundreds of thousands of fire-based villains. I couldn't even think of a hero with ice powers. Mabey that one ice chick from the JLU series, but she always got pared with that Brazilian firewoman so that kind of negated itself.

Then I got to experimenting with it.

I was so wrong.

In all disclosure, I HATE the cold. With big bold letters. Give me a blistering heatwave over a minor chill any day. But when I discovered that ice magic gave me a Cold resistance. I was ecstatic. It wasn't much now but if I mastered ice I could, in theory, take a dip in the artic with nothing but my swimming shorts and feel like I was in the Bahamas.

Unfortunately to get that resistance I'd have to make my room as cold as a meat locker and sleep with no blankets to make that work. Just thinking about it made me cringe.

Getting the hang of Ice magic at first wasn't exactly easy. Shaping the mana then filling it with ice took time and practice that even my Gamer skills could not circumvent. Not only did I have to shape the Mana to my desired shape I also needed to compress the mana to a degree that it made the spell solid. To little mana and my constructs just turned into puddles of useless water.

And after a few failed tries where my mana just turned into cold water, I finally was able to make an Ice Spear that I could launch at my targets.

It took a while to get the aim down and countless limbless zombies but now I could reasonably hit a moving target.

It was during my experimentation that I realized that Ice was acutely very versatile. With the right mana control, you could turn it into just about anything, a pillar, a sculpture, or a key. The only thing I needed to the archive was a high mana control state. I just shaped my mana into whatever shape I needed it then added the ice affinity then boom, giant anchor.

Still, it was kind of awesome when I created the [icicle Drop] skill and skewered half a dozen zombies in two minutes. It even gave me the idea for an ice cage but my Screens said I didn't have sufficient Affinity with ice to create it. Yes, the Icicle Drop took forever to create but once it was created I could let gravity take over and skewer what I needed.

For now, I honed my new skills and planned to study more about the science of ice at the library and get some ideas.

Back to smacking around zombies.

8888

**Goodness gracious was this hard to get out. I tell you that writers block is a horrible thing. If it could be cleared away by a hammer all authors would have concussions. I meant to get this out last week but was not able to. So as a bit of a consolation prize here is an extra chapter. **

**8888**

8888 8888 8888

Name- {Jake Han]

Title; The gamer.

LVL- 22

Exp 434/40,000

HP 2500/2500

MP 8000/8000

VIT- 47

STR- 21

Dex- 33

CHR- 11

INT-59(+5)

WIS- 26(+5)

LCK- 19

Chapter 4.5

"I.D Create Zombie."

I watched as the world around me changed from the bustling streets of Gotham to the still silence of the illusion dimension. It was rather peaceful if you ignored the roaming zombies. I sometimes just entered the Empty I.D and listened to the sound of nothing to clear my head.

But today I was going to find out what waited on the edges of this little world. So far, I had only ever killed a few Zombies and then left. Never taking the time to see what that building presence in the distance was.

But today, I was prepared. I had everything I needed to combat everything short of supper man.

[**Cap of shadows** – increases stealth]

[**Icy mallet** – +10 Str and has a chance to slow target.]

[**Boots of herms**} +10 Dex. Use air walk 3 times per day.

In my reserve, I also had over a dozen [**Magical Grenades**] that I was able to create using a bit of crafting from the Zombie teeth, Zombie guts, and a mana stone. Experimentation with alchemy and mana stones were finally giving dividends.

It could one-shot several zombies at once but only lasted a second before they detonated.

To close for comfort so I didn't want to have to use them.

The one time I hesitated to throw them I blew off my arm and only had 10Hp left. The arm quickly phased back into place but losing it freaked me the hell out.

The only thing keeping me from going into full shock was Gamers Mind and suppressing the memory like an ignored dish on the counter.

"Casting [Copper Skin], [Quick Dash] [Regen] [Mana Shield]"

I activated all the spells I knew and absorbed off the top of my head and waited half an hour as my magic regenerated.

Following this, I dashed threw the streets at a steady pace killing zombie after zombie. I stuck mostly to Mana Bolts for now since I was regenerating 30MP/S and mana bolt took 25mp, 30 if I held if for a few seconds. So I never ran out of mana.

After the 40th zombie, the odd feeling of pressure began to build again. Despite the cloying feeling inside my chest I continued to kill zombies.

As I killed the 50th zombie that feeling reached a crescendo.

[**Boss Summoned**\- The Zombies of the either have panicked at your slaughter, they now converge to summon the Great** Zombie Legion**.}

Off in the distance, I could see Dozens of Zombies all swarming and billing up on top of each other. I really should have been grossed out or disgusted, but I was too fascinated by the process of the zombies forming up into one big giant Zombie.

And when I say Giant I mean redwood tree size; the Zombie was so big the buildings around it only went up to its waist. "In hindsight, I really should have seen this coming. In games, the BOSS is always bigger than his grunts. Well, nothing to it now." "**Observe**"

[**Legion Zombie**

LVL 35.

HP 15200

MP 1200

Affinities, Death

**Abilities**\- Immense strength, Immense Durability, Immense stamina. ]

I whistled at the Stats of this monster. It was leagues above the normal zombie's Mobs that roamed around the place. It was honestly making me a bit excited to test myself against it.

I activated [**Sneak**] in conjunction with my Shadow Cloak and moved in the shadows of the buildings. If I was in the plain daylight the Zombie Legion would spot me right away but if I stuck to the shadows, I could throw in a few magical high-powered pot shots before the Zombie legion found me.

I found a nice little alcove right behind the Zombie logion. It was walking in the opposite direction down one of Gotham's streets and I wanted to test out just how much one of my better spells will do to a BOSS.

I activated "Spinning Mana Ball" and started to push as much of my MANA into It as possible. The small spilling ball went from the size of a baseball and grew to the size of a Basketball quickly. The power started to whip the wind around me into a frenzy.

I held my palm up and Shot the spinning ball as soon as it reached ten seconds. The ball flew towards the Legion and impacted its back, about where its spine would be.

Critical X3 Damage -3000 HP.

15200 – 3000 = 12200

I grinned at the amount of damage I did and felt pride swell up in my chest. I could feel the tingles of Gamers Mind wanting to do something but since the upswelling of pride wasn't detrimental it faded.

The Zombie Legion leached forward and bent down onto one knee before it launched itself back up and turned around to look for me, only to get another Spinning mana blast to the face.

Critical X2 -2000HP.

11200 Hp.

Glanced down at my MP bar and grimaced. My MP had been almost completely drained with just two blasts. This was not going to work.

I slid behind a building and focused on Sneak to hide from the Zombie again. The building next to me exploded in a shower of rubble. I gulped down a small ting of worry as one of the pieces of rubble flattened an SUV.

It was frustrating that any decent attack I could make took almost all my magical power. Yes, it regenerated fairly quickly but not enough that I could quickly take out the Legion zombie.

It took a solid five minutes for my MP to regenerate back to full power. Five minutes of me ducking, sneaking and hiding away from the Legion Zombie. I don't really like hiding away from a fight.

But there wasn't all that much I could do. It's not like I could just increase my MP whenever I wanted…

Wait a moment.

I pulled up my stat screen and facepalmed. I had been so focused on just improving my stats normally that I never actually used my Points.

AP-40

INT 20(+5) +(20) =45.

I dumped 20 points into the INT stat and grinned when I felt an upwelling of mana from my core. It felt a soothing warm breeze coming from inside.

[New Skill- Passive- Beginner Mage. You have begun your First step on the great path of Magic. +10% Mana Capacity + 5% Mana Regen. +5% increase in magic attack +5% in Mana Manipulation, +30% to mana related skills.]

I grinned at the new skill and clenched my fists from the excitement. I focused on creating another mana Blast, but this time held it for a little longer. Growing it to the size of a yoga ball. The spinning now causing a small tornado effect in place.

I Launched the Bolt at the Zombie and watched as it hit it square in the chest.

Critical x2

-5000Hp

11200 – 5000hp = 6200Hp.

"Yes, take that you… you…. I really have got to work on my insults."

{Warning- killing Intent Detected]

I stopped joking and watched as the Legion zombie's eyes started to glow red. Its body soon following and taking on a light reddish-brown color. Above the Zombies' head, I could see the Status: Frenzy.

**Frenzy**\- A berserker skill – Regenerates Hp at the Cost of MP but the Caster goes into a Frenzied anger state, losing control of their emotions in their fury.

I watched as Zombies from all around the surroundings began to fling themselves at the Legion Zombie. Each new zombie increasing the Hp bar a little at a time.

I did the only thing I could think of, I started casting Ice spears and mana arrows.

So far, I could cast one Arrow or One Ice spear per second. The only reason I wasn't using the spells on the Legion so far was that it was big enough that the Spinning ball of death could easily impact it.

But now I needed speed, not Damage power. As long as the Small Zombies re-died before getting to the legion, I could deal with it.

For each Ice spear that impacted a zombie and stuck it into a building a hazy mana arrow impacted another and blew it away. I did not have the mana control to do anything more than made a rough line and shot it at the Enemies. They were more like giant toothpicks then real Arrows and Spears, but I didn't have the time to make them any more detailed than that.  
Even my Gamer ability couldn't help me master everything in a day.

The Legion Zombie must have had a little intelligence in that head of his because once it registered that I was killing or disabling all the little zombies it could eat to get stronger I roared and charged at me.

You would think that something so big would at least be slower to compensate. But nope. It was still ridiculously fast. Only my extra gear and active skills allowed me to jump out of the way just in time. However, the shrapnel from the concrete Exploring did do some damage -25 hp.

I used all the power I had to try and get away by jumping between the buildings. Activating the Boots of Herms, I jumped on air and made it up onto the roof of a building before the timer on the boots ran out.

They were a neat little item I got after increasing my LCK stat. They allowed me to move threw the air for about a minute 3 times a day. Pulse they passively increased my Dex by 10%.

Once I was up onto the roof I watched as the Legion Zombie began to search for me again. It's HP bar now 3/4ths full. I hoped that it would not get a Frenzy every time it hit half health, or this could take forever.

"Ok Jake, Think. He as a Strong sturdy body with high endurance. He can regenerate and gets stronger the more damage you deal him. But overall, he's fast! I need to neutralize his speed. But How? Mabey Mana Ropes? They worked to immobilize the smaller Zombies. Wait no, no anchor to keep him down and the rope is to short to full bind him. Mabey if I can damage on of his legs I can slow him down? Oh, I got it." I opened my Inventory and took out a bag and a dozen of the Zombie Grenades.

It took a bit to find any information in my system about alchemy but once I found the crafting section I found out I really enjoyed making things. Even more so than fighting, I found that experimenting with Alchemy was FUN!

I did have to move my experiments into an I.D once I nearly blew my room out of the house. Mom still hasn't forgiven me for that mysterious red stain on the ceiling.

Most of the Experiments blew up in failure. After all, I only just got the [Alchemy] skill and had to make up recipes as I went along. After Hundreds of hours of experimentation, I had 3 recipes I could make with reasonable success. (well more like a dozen but it still felt soooo log.)

[Zombie Grenade.]

[Acid]

[Lure]

The Acid was very hard to make and required a lot of [High -Zombie blood] to make. So, I didn't have all that much on me. The Lure was also useless in his scenario. But the Zombie grenade was mostly a mixture of Magic stone, Mana and Zombie teeth. Who knew that Zombie's teeth were explosive?

I tossed the Explosive into the bag and hoped they would stay inert till I needed them. Pulling the bag onto my shoulder I held my hand to the side of me and Concentrated.

I Activated the Ice Spear Spell but instead of letting the magic stop once I had a normal icicle in my hands, I forced the mana to continue into it.

I could feel how the water in the air was being sucked in and mixed with even more of my Mana. Twisting, hardening and forming into Giant Ice spear that hovered menacingly above my head. I know it won't be enough to kill the Giant Legion Zombie, but it should slow it down.

I don't have the best precision in the world. My Accuracy skill was only at 10% and it was a slow skill to grind. I'm sure that once I can shoot out arrows and bolts like no one's business I could grind it up faster but for now, it was still pitiful.

I would never try anything like this against a normal zombie. But against something the size of a barn? How could I miss?

I shot the overloaded spear forward and watched at it hit the Legion Zombie right in the thigh. Stabbing into it and out the other end until the Zombies leg was stuck to the pavement. The zombie looked down dumbly at the Spear. Trying to piece together what just happened.

[New Spell- Frost Lance- Int+50% Damage. Has a 50% chance to immobilize the target. +10% of Int Damage due to Freezing Statuses de-buff for as long as the Lance is in effect. ]

"Wow, now that's what I'm talking about. All right now the hard part." I jumped down from the building and landed near the head of the Zombie. It opened its mouth to try and bite at me but I quickly dashed away. The Zombie instead of biting down on the bag full of Grenades.

"BOOM"

"When dealing with an enemy that can regenerate health. It is advised to either get rid of the source or its Regeneration or Use Over Kill." I quoted, watching as the Zombies Head flew off into the distance.

0/15200 Hp.

I had to first slow the Legion zombie down because its head was fast and could have bitten me in two, but now with the Frost Debuff, I managed to get out by the skin of my teeth.

[Level Up X 2]

I grinned down at the number and jumped around in excitement. With no one else around I kind of looked ridicules.

"Three cheers for preparation," I said as I walked towards the dissipating body. All the little limbs and parts that made up the bigger zombie were now turning into a dark smoke that dissipated into a miasma.

Leaving behind three gleaming items.

"Observe."

"3 X **HP potions**\- minor. These are healing potions. Will restore 100 hp after consumption. Can be administered through IV as well**."**

"Skill Book: **Energy Drain**\- Rank: Rare. A technique that most middle- and high-class undead poses. Takes the targets life force and replenishes your own. With training, you can restore ally's life force as well as restore vitality."

**Would you like to learn this skill?** **Y?N**

'_Wow, that could come in handy._' I pressed yes and waited for the headache that was sure to follow. I waited and waited but the ache did not come. Quirking a brow, I checked by Spell list but, yes, the spell was there, and I knew how to cast it. It just didn't hurt to learn it.

"Is it because I'm getting better at this magic thing or is this because I have a higher INT score now?" There wasn't really a way to test it until I found myself another magic book, so I looked at the next item.

My jaw dropped at the nice crisp stack of hundred-dollar bills. With reverence, I picked up the money and counted it out.

$500, I earned 5 hundred dollars! I knew in the back of my mind that defeating enemies in this world could give me loot. I saw it happen with some of the smaller zombies. But they only gave me 1-2 dollars at a time. And it was all crumpled up and dirty. I guess I just assumed that my power was finding loos change, but this confirmed it. My power was hax!

I shoved the stack of bills into my inventory and watched as the Doller counter went up to $545.

If I got stronger. I would have no more issues with money for a very long time.

With that, I shoved the potions into my inventory and exited the dungeon. Tomorrow I had classes and I wanted to rest a bit before having to deal with the monotony of college.

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**Hope you all enjoyed that. I still have a few chapters that I need to look over but so far I think you all can guess why this story is titles Freezing? **


	5. The abyss Net

I tiled my head in confusion at the tall modern skyscraper in the middle of the road. It looked like a normal skyscraper with shiny windows and steel beams. The building had to have at least thirty floors and another ten or so penthouse floors.

I could have sworn that the last time I came threw this area it hadn't been here.

It would have been hard to miss a giant skyscraper in between all these normal one to two-floor buildings lining the street.

The fact that no one was paying attention to the giant building was also a dead giveaway something was up.

I had just come from another Successful day at Collage. You have no idea how much easier it is to get threw school when you can just 'eat' your book and gain the skill's in your department. If things went as well as they have been I should be able to graduate in another month or two.

It helped I was already taking college classes back when I was in high school as an accelerated learning program.

Don't give me that look.

I am NOT a genius.

I cannot stress enough how much I am NOT a genius.

I just know a good opportunity when I see It.

And I'm not afraid to put in some effort to do better.

Most college classes still took a monumental amount of studying, I just studied a little more than the average person to get the grades faster.

And it looked like another opportunity was here.

_'Ding' _

The sound of the bell above the door was oddly soothing and refreshing. Making me think of a nice spring breeze. The interior was decorated in a rich reds and golds rug that was so soft I felt like I could take a nap on it.

There was very little else in the room other than a receptionist's desk. Curiously I walked towards the desk, my hand not straying too far from my inventory in case this was some sort of trap.

"Hello, Welcome to the Abyss auction. How may I help you?" The receptionist looked like a kind and friendly Irish woman with blinding orange hair and a smattering of freckles. I say _looked like_ because…

**[Gamers Mind- Telepathic attack blocked.] **

I peered a little closer at the woman and I could see the woman was straining slightly. In fact, she looked like she was so focused on attacking my mind that she might not actually notice me walking right in front of her.

"You know, it's incredibly rude to try and get into someone head?" The lady jumped. It wasn't hard to put two and two together after all. Lady looks like she's concentrating + Gamers mind activating= Hostile.

I know I'm no expert telepath, but she didn't know that. To her, I was the guy who was revisiting her mental intrusion without breaking a sweat. So, when I got up close to her, smiling like nothing was happening, she looked about ready to bolt.

"IIII'MM m Soorry Sir. Standard ddd Proseagggure." Shakily she stood up and did a bowed with her head. "What can Theee Abbyss do for you today?"

I quirked a brow and slowly sat down in the chair across from her. Number one rule dad taught me. '_Always act like you're in control. Even if you have no idea what's going on_.'

[**New Skill**\- Acting- LVL2. The true actors of legends could bring tyrants to tears and Gods to Humility. At this level you can amuse a baby.]

I ignored the skill and kept an eye on the lady in front of me. It looked like she didn't notice the screen at all despite being magical and or telepathic. Indicating my windows were safe behind gamers mind.

I whispered **[Observe**] and watched as the lady flinched, her hand raising to her head.

[Kathrin Bardo LVL 55]

[Mind Mage]

[States- cursed]

26505HP

14584(200 accessible) Mp

[Kathrin Bardo was an up and coming Mage in the French underground Mafia. But after a bad run-in with Clarion the witch boy her Magic was bound and tethered to a fraction of its normal size. In despair she racked up a huge debt from gambling and sold herself to the Abyss Auction as a Telepath.]

"So, Kathrin. I'd like a few answers." Kathrin flinched and quivered at having her whole mind read in just under a second. That kind of power was leagues above what she could ever produce. "You can relax now. I've confirmed your story." This only seemed to freak her out even more. I could just barely make out her hand reaching down to the side of her desk. Either to press a button or grab a weapon.

I was going to question her more but one of the four doors behind her opened and a tall impish looking man with long silver hair walked out of one of the doors.

If ever there was a man who was the textbook definition of Lawyer, he looked it.

He had a long impish salesman smile that instantly made me put up my guard. Telepaths, Gangs, Biker, Criminals, and Zombies were one thing. But this guy was on a whole different level.

"Ah, Mr. Jake Han. I was wondering when you might stumble onto us. Why I was just on my way out to see if I couldn't find you." The man zoomed over and placed a card into my hand. He moved so fast that he was in front of me before I could even register he had moved. "The names Michel Tang. I'm a manager of the Abyss Auction and Abyss Net here in Gotham, would you like to speak in my office?"

[Michel Tang]

LVL ?

The man's level was either so high that I could not Observe it or he had an artifact that was obscuring his information. Somehow I got the feeling it was the former rather than the latter.

"If it's all the same to you, id rather go to the nice little café down the street." Like hell, I was going to step into the heart of a potential enemy's territory. Doing something like that was just asking for trouble.

Instead of being offended Michel just laughed it off and said. "Sure, that is perfectly acceptable." We walked out of the door and back into the smoggy Gotham day. Now that I was paying attention I could feel as we Exited an illusionary barrier. And once I noticed a message stating. {Leaving barrier} popped up.

It was chilling that I had been pulled into a barrier without my knowing.

Once seated at the Café du Bat Michel got right to business. "Allow me to be the first to welcome you into the wide world of the abyss, Mr. Han. Here allow me to present to you your membership into the Abyss auction. Please look at the back of the business card."

I flipped the card and saw the URL for the abyss auction. "We sell many magical items among other things at our auction website. We used to have a book catalog but with the internet, we have been able to expand exponentially. It is very important to keep up with the latest trends after all. We sell any number of magical items from spell books to magical items. Flying carpets, Mana Capsules, and even your very own magical pet is only a click away."

"Ok, so you're some Underground Magical shopping center. But why did you want to meet me?"

"Well, it's not everyone that can procure magical items at the drop of a hat. I was actually hoping that you would be willing to sell some of the items you have procured to us. Being able to shift reality to a game creating, while not unprecedented, is a useful ability that we in the abyss would like to capitalize on." The man rubbed his hands together in that villain or sly way and I figured he had to be hamming up the image of a greedy bastard.

I'm kind of shocked and feel a little violated that this person knew so much about me already. It was disconcerting, and I had to make a mental note to find anti-tracking spells in my to-do list. My ever-increasing to-do lists.

You know sometimes this whole magic thing is just more trouble than its worth.

We talked about more about how the Auction would by all the useful items I could make while draining some of the useless items of mana. Turns out that being able to accumulate so much mana like I was doing was very abnormal and quite profitable.

It defied every known law of magic to just be able to create an item from nothing and that was a very tempting power to the abyss.

"I should probably get going before some moron burns down the office, but before I leave, I would like to leave our newest investment with a warning." Being called an investment was a little objectifying but I didn't want to piss this guy off, so I let it go. "Get stronger! For now, your well hid in the magical muck that is Gotham city. But sooner or later Hunters, body snatchers, demons and everything in between will come hunting you for your abundant and potent mana. You'll have to become much stronger If you want to fend them off."

He tipped his hat and skipped out the door like a little school girl.

Error

…..

….

…..

…

{Gamers Mind Active}

{Gamers Mind Activated}

{Gamers Mind Activated}

"Crap" the facepalm could be heard all over the café.

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**Hey, every..thing. Yah thing works. Sorry, it took so long to get this one out. I had the chapter ready to go to post last month but something always got in the way of the post. But it's done now and hopes you all can enjoy.**


	6. Lost Research

Jake Han didn't really want to be in this part of Gotham. The lower east side was where all the shipyards, abandoned warehouses, and bordered up apartments were and all the cops weren't. It made this one of the most dangerous places to just wander around. But I have a Quest and I am going to finish it.

{Quest- Fathers lost Research.]

[Your father and his team have lost one of his trucks Containing a crucial piece of machinery for his next project. He suspects it might be at the docks and the only lead he had was a pair of torn-up boxing gloves where the crate was stolen.]

[Objective- Find the missing Crate and retrieve it.]

[Bonus- Take out all enemies without being caught.]

After a bit of research on the area, I found a small semi-abandoned boxing gym located near the harbor.

The Trial Boxing club was shut down last year after several of their boxers were found to be 'juicing' just a little too much for the judges to ignore. Normally this would not be a problem, but the local mob had been terrorized by batman for the last year leading to a shortage of funds that kept the judge from being paid off.

This lead to more and more boxing scandals that damaged the reputations of each of the gyms in the area.

So, the place quickly became abandoned as the other mobs swooped up the available boxers. Those that didn't join one of the mobs moved out quickly and those that didn't find themselves six feet under after saying no to the wrong mob enforcer.

Nowadays most of them acted as homes for squatters and an interesting teenage hangout.

The building itself was run down and looked like it would need some serious TLC. Chipped and cracked paint. More vines then you could shake a leg at, and bricks falling off the edges.

[Entering ID]

I stood still in shock that I was thrown into an ID without wanting to and cursed myself. "Of course, I'd get involved with this magic shit. Whats a quest without at least some magic?" I whispered to myself.

Without anything attacking me yet I decided to climb up to one of the windows and see if I cant scope out the place first. After all, knowing the terrain is half the battle.

I peered over a broken window and 'Cha-ching' there was the stolen truck that was no drought holding whatever scientific mumbo jumbo my dad was illegally working on. Hopefully, it wasn't one of those kill all humanity doomsday things and instead more of a lethal weapon kind of think.

You didn't think all those two-bit supervillains built their own doomsday machines, do you?

"Can we go now? We've been waiting in this dimension pocket for hours!" One of the generic men with his ski-masked pulled up wined. He was sitting down on the grill of a truck and looked extremely bored with everything, even with the gun in his hands.

"Not yet, We still got an hour till pick up." Another voice from an office yelled out.

I cast a quick and quiet "Observe" on him.

{Magical Gunman}

[Level 20]

_A hired hand for the Magical Fire Dragon group. A small band of criminals and mercenaries. He joined a few years back when he accidentally killed a wizard and was sucked into the Abyss. Ever since he has been acting as a low-level Thug. _

The rest of the men in the building all had similar stories with only a small difference in how they became aware of the abyss and magic.

A grand total of seven half-trained thugs loitered around the place and I was not looking forward to my odds. Gamer's mind must be working in overdrive because I can keep my cool and rationalize a way to get into the building.

I took a page out of batman's book and slinked up the walks of the building to the roof. Looking for a hatch or broken window I could use to get into the building and hopefully get dropped off near the truck.

The only way I was going to be able to drive the van out was via a miracle. Or sheer stupidity on the Fire fly's part. I wasn't banking on either.

Instead, I ran over my list of skills and what I could do to distract them.

[Sneak, Bronze skin, Energy drain, lower ice manipulation, ice arrow, Running, Mana barrier, power strike, Blunt weapons mastery, Low-level telekinesis.}

An idea hit me in the face like a mallet. A grin crossed my face as I used my sneak skill to hide above and then under the truck. A Quick application of my telekinetic ability caused some of the precariously placed boxes on the other side of the warehouse to topple over.

While everyone else was busy I activated iron skin and my inventory. I lightly pushed the truck and watched in amazement as it dematerialized into my inventory.

{Warning, Object mass and volume are too big for the Inventory. 5 minutes before forcefull ejection.}

I frowned at the warning. I guess that it was just to easy to hope I could put Everything into my inventory without problems.

"Who the hell you think yous is?" I whirled around and cursed when one of the men that I didn't see before spotted me. He hefted his gun and quickly shot me in the torso without much preamble.

The shots hurt and I could see my Hp meater go down a smidge. Thankfully iron skin kept most of the birdshot pellets from sinking into me.

"Dame it Dave, we could have questioned the fucker. Like how in the holy fuck he got in here?" An annoyed voice said.

Clearly, I was not nearly as skilled as I thought I was. I groaned out and got right back up to my feet. This time using my giant Icy mallet as a crutch.

"Wow, the dudes still alive. Hey does he look familiar." The nameless goon that shot me said. Now that I was closer I could tell he looked rather monkey-like with his large lips, small eyes and wild hair.

"You idiot's why do I keep hiring you. That's the Gamer Jack Han. He's one of those new guys to the abyss. Supposedly has a body like a game character." A huge hulking man with wild red hair like a lion mane and muscles that would make even me envious stepped out of a little office.

Orochi Lowers

[Fire dragon lieutenant]

[Level 30]

Well, that explained who he was, but not how the hell he knew so much about me. It concerned me greatly that these bottom feeders were somehow able to get that kind of information when I've only been in contact with the magical community for a little over a month.

"Well, what are you idiots waiting for. If we capture him alive and sell him off for parts, we can rake in a ton of doe. Ingredients like him don't just fall into our lap like this every day. "

[Gamer's mind- activated]

I almost freaked out over the fact that this biker gang rejects not only wanted to enslave me, but they also wanted to use me as ingredients. It sent a dame chill up my spine.

Another gunshot rang out, but I was ready and had subtly activated [Mana barrier]. Making the bullets Bounce off and ricochet back towards them. Ignoring the fact that my new barrier somehow defied the laws of physics I cast [Ice Arrow] and launched them at one of the random goons.

The goon went down _hard_ with only a sliver of his HP remaining. The arrow should have gone straight threw that leg of his but they must have had some sort of magic keeping them defended.

Seeing that bullets were only going to hurt them more than hurt me, the Leader of the Dragons signaled for his guys to stop shooting.

Their weaponry is nothing special. Just some random enchanted garbage that barely did anything. There was even one knife who's magic made the air around the person two degrees warmer. Why would anyone even make that?

Regardless I kept pot shooting two more men before the last three made it to me. Thankfully I have a lot of experience using the Icy mallet and just rushed right threw the defenses of the first two men and knock them out with a swift and heavy swing of my mallet.

The Last Dragon was able to get a hit in with his enchanted crowbar against my shield. Seeing that my Mana Dropped by a good third I really didn't want to be hit by that crowbar. It must have been enhanced with something special but I was a bit too preoccupied to focus on what.

I kicked out with my leg and felt a little satisfaction that my kicks were now so bad the goons Hp bar dropped by half. A simple mana bolt to the head ensured he was down for now.

With the adrenaline still active I ran at the leader of the group. Ready to pound him into a paste with either my arrows or mallet.

{Warning Inventory Overflow imminent- 1 min.}

Only to get blown back with a solid boot that cracked threw my Mana barrier and into my gut.

That was just about half my HP! If that boot had hit me directly then I would have been a smear on the ground.

"You survived that? Huh, usually whatever I hit with my achilles heal blows up. Ow well ill just have to kick you again. Yer probably going to die but I'm sure some necromancers will want your corpse. MHH, since your bodies a gamer character maybe ill get some loot form it too."

Grinning like a mad man the leader charged at me. My injuries were quickly displaced but I had no mana to speak of. It would take at least a minute to regen enough to do anything. My iron skin and other protections were hampering me just a little from regaining them faster.

I leaned over and grasped the head of the nearest thug and cast 'Energy drain'. The man had a pathetic amount of mana at only 10Mp, but it was enough to activate another mana bolt to the charging man's face. Staggering him and making him burst into the wall instead of me.

I got out of the way and forwent hitting him in the back with my mallet. Yes, it was an opportunity but enraging him and making him get up faster was not worth the damage I could do when I could spend the time regening a little mana.

I jumped behind a crate and stood still, activating meditation while the Dragon leader pulled his head out of the wall. "Oh, fuck you kid. That was just…smart. I'll give you that. Using my own men as resources while they're down. Mabey you have a future in this world yet." Orochi chuckled savage. Knowing fully well that a guy like this was just asking to get picked up by some science types.

It didn't sit well with me how he worded that. It made it seem like he was on their level. Why couldn't he just go back to the days where the most threatening thing in the world was a killer clown?

God is Gotham efed up.

The Dragon leader prepared to charge again, But this time I was able to regen a good quarter of my Mana.

Since blocking him would be stupid I dodged to get out of the way and began to pelt him with Ice arrows. They were bouncing off his clothes but they still hurt and more importantly, were slowing him down.

Ice affinity was amazing since even If you still didn't do all that much damage you could still freeze your opponents. Or at the very least slow them down for that one big hit.

Once the beast of a man slowed down it was easier to get in close and deliver a hit with my Icy Mallet. Doing a decent bit of damage and adding onto the freezing effect of the ice arrows.

The Dragon man did not go flying back as I wanted but he did double over and clutched this stomach. It was good enough for me so I hit him over the head with the mallet and grew even more frustrated that It only seemed to daze him a little.

Then a miracle happened.

My inventory screen popped up right in front of me ad Luanche the Truck out of my inventory as well as some random items on the floor.

{Warning, inventory overflow rejection. Inventory will be shut down for 3 days for repairs.}

I breathed out a shaky breath and thanked whatever system was watching over me that I was not dead yet. I looked to the front of the truck to take a look at the leader and

Orochi

[Statue- unconscious- 1:00 Min.]

"Well that's not long." Seeing that everyone was either knocked out or drained I picked up the random things my inventory puked out and got into the Truck to ride away.

[Exiting Dungeon]

I hopped out and made my way now leisurely towards home. Catching my breath and subtly meditating to rise my Mana back up. That skirmish had been to close and I wasn't about to be caught unaware again. "Great now I have to find a way to get even stronger. More things to do." I sighed as it looked like this game was starting to become more work than play.

{**Quest Complete**.}

**Fathers lost research**.

+1000 relations with family, 500$, iron spear. -1000 relations with the Dragon gang. Icy Maic Book.

[Bonus objective- be undetected– failed]

The fact I failed the bonus objective pissed me off. It was frustrating to see that I still had so far to go before I could reach my goal of being an unrepentant badass.

I pulled the new book out of my inventory and read its description. There was a picture of a snowflake on the cover and the book itself seemed to be made of dark ice.

[Icy Skill Book. – Rank: Common- A magic book Written by Icy the Snow Witch. Teaches the fundamentals of Ice magic as well as containing a number of Ice related spells and enchantments. Cost to absorb 45 Wis and 80 INT.

"Holy shit. This is amazing. I could know real spells with this."

However looking over my stats showed I was just shy of the needed 80 points of INT.

I rumbled a bit disappointingly and stowed the book away. I wanted to learn it so bad but using up all my points at this one moment was not going to help when I could just study for two weeks and get the same effects.

So even though I didn't do nearly as well with the Dragon gang as I would have liked, I was able to get a good skill out of it. I'd have to be on the lookout for more skill books that gave me permanent enhancement like this.

At least dad was happy that he didn't have to spend a few million dollars more in material costs to redo his prototype. It would have been a disaster and a half if the machine was not complete. As it stood they still had to make repairs to it thanks to the Stupidity of the Dragon gange.

"Well she's a bit banged up but with a few repairs, I should be able to have her up and running in about a week. Thanks, son. You have no idea how big a headache having this thing stolen was. In fact I'm not even going to ask how you did it." He tipped his hat to me and we agreed that telling mom anything about this was a bad idea.

The fact that the house got a mysterious new Play station was a complete coincidence.

Name- {Jake Han]

Title; The gamer.

LVL- 35

Exp 434/80,000

HP 2500/3500

MP 8000/1000

VIT- 50

STR- 24

Dex- 39

CHR- 17

INT-70(+5)

WIS- 54(+5)

LCK- 20

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**OMAK**

Jake banged on the door to his (friends?) house/mansion. The door rattled so hard that it might have fallen off its hinges if he kept hitting it. But he needed to hit it this hard or his friend(?) would never hear him.

His friend spent way too much time in that basement of his. Tinkering away at machines day after day. To be fair he made a boatload of cash from it but the guy needed to get out more. And as his sole friend, it was his duty to drag him out of the house and do something social. Baring that at least something non-emo.

"Who dares to disturb Jack Spicer Evil Boy genius?" A teen with startling red hair and chalk-white skin burst out the door with an army of robots flying after him. He posed with his finger pointed at me in an attempt to be menacing.

He wore a pair of ringed goggled on his head that he used whoever he was welding or flying with his own Heli pack. A long black lab coat with frayed and curled edges covered most of the guy with numerous tools, screws and gadgets pouring out of the pockets. Underneath was a redshirt with torn sleeves concealing a surprising amount of muscle.

Out of curiosity, I looked at the levels of the robots.

All of the robots with him were a stupidly low level.

[Jack-Bot]

Level 1 – Unupgraded.

A few of the Bots must have been particularly aggressive since they charged at me with spinning razor blades popping out of their sides. One even had a miniature flame thrower gearing up to shoot.

"**Mana Shield, Icey club**." After casting my spells, I weathered a few of the blades and hit the Jack-bots on their centers. Jack made them more into servants and intimidation rather than effectiveness. As such even a normal person could take on at least one. So it was no surprise that with my new skills I was able to break them all.

"Can you please call off your attack droids?"I yelled as one of the bots got a bit to close with that razor.

"Jack-Bots STOP," Jack yelled, making all the robots not only stop but stop flying as well. Jack facpalmed. "I meant stop attacking not stop functioning." Jack facepalmed at his own creation's stupidity. He ran his eyes over me before snapping his fingers.

Before I knew what was going on I felt something breakthrough my mana shield and bind my wrists and legs together. I looked down and saw a pair of arms like the ones from Doctor octopus in the Amazing Spiderman clamped to each one of me limbs extending from the floorboards.

"Holy shit man. Did you make Doc Oc's legs? I thought you said it was impossible." Jack looked surprised for a second before snapping his fingers again and letting me go.

"No, I said the neural interface was impossible, I never said the legs themselves were. And sorry about that. But the Jake Han I know can't use… whatever that was. I tough you might be one of those spy types." Jake clapped his hands and a swarm of smaller bots leads by a Butler like bot came to pick up the scraps. These were clearly in the Mid 50s range and far more durable than the pieces of scrap on the ground.

I raised my hands in the air to placate him. "It's been a loooong few months man. Want to take this inside?" Jack nodded and left his bots to handle the cleanup.

I peeked up over his head and read out his states.

[Jack Spicer]

[Evil Boy genius]

LVL 80.

It surprised me that jack had a high level far above normal human. Normally he couldn't even dunk a basketball to save his life.

Jack dragged me down to his little layer under the mansion. Robot parts hung off hooks like a horror movie set, while the room was so dark that I had to concentrate to see anything. _Note to self, find night vision spell_. The only light in the room was from the various screens that illuminate the room in a blue glow.

"Lights," Jack said and the lights turned on. Making the room seem less like a serial killer lived in it and more like an overly gothic mechanic. "Alright Jake. Convince me you're still you and not some imposter trying to steal my tech….. again."

"Do people often disguise themselves as me just to steal from you?" Knowing Jack, the way I do I half expected a plant wearing a mustache to be able to sneak past him.

"Eh not really, most of the time people just bust in and take my Wu. But you never know. Lots of crazy people out there. Yesterday I heard on the news some guy in a pig mask and an anthro Frog was kidnapping people."

I shrugged my shoulders in defeat and tried to think of a way to prove I wasn't an imposter. "Last time we met you were complaining about some monk who pants'ed you in front of your girlfriend doing some sort of game. Then fell in love all over again when she obliterated them in retaliation."

Jack Spicer tried to glare at me but on him, it just looked like a pout. "Oh, come on man. Not cool. Alright your you. Now spill." With a snap of his fingers the metal arms let me go and I hopped onto the cluttered floor.

Jack made himself a bag of popcorn while listening to my story. Spit taking a few times when I started my little adventure by the peer and with the dragons.

Jack rubbed his head to soothe the headache that was coming on. "Jake, WTF? Seriously Are you really going to join Bane of all people? That guy is terrifying. Please he is so cliché, I mean a Luchador; Come on."

"Hey, of all the villains I know he's got the best rep. He's got several degrees, numerous martial arts, and his own island. Who else in Gotham's got that and won't screw me over? Besides weren't you the guy fangirling over a glorified geko?" Jack raised his hackles and tossed a wrench at my head. -10HP

"Hey, Chase is an immortal lizard badass with more swag and style in his pinky then Bane has in his whole body." I threw the wrench back at jack just barely missing his head. I guess all those beat down's by monks at least taught him how to dodge.

"You take that back. Bane is ten times as sophisticated as some smaller killer croc. He's what? A thousand years old and conquered who exactly? Oh, yeah. ONE mountain." Jack lifted a mallet and hurled it at me. I tried to grasp it and make a cool show of throwing it back. Only to have the thing slip through my fingers and hit my chest.

-20HP.

I guess my Blunt weapons skill doesn't help me catch blunt weapons then. Good to know.

"He could take it all if he wanted to. He just doesn't want to take the hassle. And doesn't your guy lose to a guy that prowls the rooftops with a bat costume?" Getting into the swing of things I reached behind me and took a crowbar off a rack and hurled it like a spear. Jack picked up a spare Pease of robotic armor and blocked the strike. Jack retaliated by throwing a Band saw over the table.

"Hey, Batman is Awesome and even joined the justice league." Especially now that I knew a few of his little secrets. The band saw sailed over my head and clanked off the wall since saws are not the most aero-dynamic things.

"He's a flying rodent!" Jack said as he dodged the dual nail guns aimed at his head. Catching one to his leg and making him kneel for a few seconds. "Chase could wipe the floor with him. Heck Wuya could mope the floor with him." Jack somehow threw a kitchen sink at jack. Smacking Jake up the side of the head. -10Hp.

"He's taken down every supervillain in Gotham and joined the justice league. How much more impressive can someone get?"

Back and forth we kept arguing till we got to tiered to keep throwing things at each other. The fight somehow leading us to both be sitting on his couch with game controllers in hand playing Super Smash. "Come on, Come on. Dang, it." Jack's bowser got hurled across the screen by a Little mac.

"Well, that's one character you're not getting. Need any more ice packs." I twirled my finger and a block of ice appeared in my hand.

"No, and that is so not fair. Why do you get the Perfect health and cool magical powers?" Jack twisted in his seat, grumbling as his ribs got aggravated. One of the jack-bots offered him some water that he refused.

"JACKIE!" Both our heads turned to the door, we both had the same pet name.

Standing just above the stairs looking worried, a shopping back over one shoulder was Kamil.

Jacks girlfriend.

He didn't even need my help, they just found each other and somehow hit it off. No idea how it happened. It might help that both were evil geniuses.

Kamil zipped down the stairs in the blink of an eye. Leaving behind a purple trail of dust in her wake. Out of curiosity I 'observed' her and nearly had a coronary from shock.

Kamil Morebucks

{Princess of Power}

[LVL 900]

That level was so obesely high I had to rub my eyes twice just to reassure myself that I was not seeing things.

"What happened to you? Was it the Monks? Did the puffs pay a visit? Did Wuya do it? I told that old hag that if she harmed one hair on your head I'd personally throw her into the sun." Jack lifted his hands in surrender. Allowing his girlfriend to fuss over him and get it out of her system.

"It's alright K I and Jake just had a bit of a fight. He said Bane was better than Chase and I could not let that stand." Kamil sent a glare my way and I discreetly kept the spell for an I.D on the tip of activating just in case.

"Fine. I'll leave him alone but only because he makes the best raspberry scones in the world and you would be depressed without your best friend." I let go of the breath I didn't know I was holding.

Even before I knew her level I was fearful of the girl who personified the role of the Rich mean girl. It took a certain mindset to fight the Powerpuffs when you were only ten and get away with it too. It didn't help that the puffs were registered as being nearly on the level of superman himself. The only thing keeping them from being fully on his level was their young age.

Just to be on the safe side I pulled some Scones out of my inventory and tossed them to her. " MY Mistress, allow this humble servant to present to you these humble Scones in recompense for bruising your… umm… Jackie."

She reached over and took the tray of scones in appeasement. Munching into them with all the sensibility of a high-class lady while cuddling up with Jack. "So, what brings you down here anyway? I thought you said you went to college?"

"Oh, that's right we totally go off-topic. He came here to see if I knew any magic teachers since he got some Swanky new powers that turn his life into a video game." Kamil spit out the scone into Jack's face. He sputtered before glaring at me.

Jack breathed out slowly and swiped the scone crumbs off his face. "Like I was saying since he got his new powers he needs some tips. Sorry man but you know I only babble in the magical. The only magical thing I go after these days is K here." Kamil blushed like a red cherry tomato and glomped Jack till he started to get blue in the face.

"Like I was saying, I could get you in touch with Wuya but I really think that's a bad idea. She's Hayline and Hayline only ever look out for themselves. Just…A BAD idea." Lord knew how the old witch would use him to her advantage and give nothing in return. Even running around with a body now only made her worse. At least as a ghost he could trap her into a vacuum cleaner.

"Well, it was worth a shot. Guess I'll stick with training in Santa Prisca with bane. God that's going to take so long."

"Your heading to uncle Bane's place? Cool tell him I said hi." We both stared at her in confusion. "What? Did you think daddy made his fortune be not using the underworld? It costs a lot of money to sabotage your enemies and Uncle Banes the best at it."

I really do not what to know how those Christmas dinners went.


	7. Chapter 7

**Santa Priska **

**11:00am**

Marco rubbed his neck as he finished up some of his paperwork. Sure, there was less paperwork and red tape here than in a standard military, but they still needed records of everything. Deciding that he finished with his current report he opened his email and scrolled threw. 'Spam, Spam, Sale, Sale, Jake Han, Sale, Spam. Wait What?" Marco scrolled back up and read the email after spilling out some of his coffee.

_Hello Guys,_

_Long time no sees! 8-) I just got finished with College. Yes, I know I said it would take half a year more. But I managed to finish it quickly. You could say almost like magic.:) I was hoping to be able to take you up on your offer of training. _

_P.S _

_The black mask gang has been pissed and tried to grab as much territory as possible. Now BM, Funnyman and Coin dude are in a small-scale war!_

Marco broke out into a smile and tapped away at his keyboard.

"You seem to be in a good mood, Marco. Did we go too light on training today?" Bane, the master of Santa Prisca teased as he walked into the office. A stack of notes and books hanging off one arm and a gallon of water on the other. The big man was very instant on always being hydrated even when he was just doing paperwork.

"No Boss man. I just got an email from that crazy kid magician from Gotham. He's taking my offer of training." Bane leaned over the man's shoulder and read the email.

"That's good, but didn't you say he still had a year of schooling left?" Marco nodded before pouring himself a new cup of Coffee.

"Yeah, the kid explained that. Said it didn't take a genius to get done with school early if you just test out of all the easy classes. Classes like basic algebra, psychology, and intro to computers. The basic ones, then he said he was experimenting with a magical way to learn things faster. Looks like he succeeded."

Bane stroked his mask covered chin before grinning in remembrance. "I am glad to see someone else found that loophole. It would have taken me a decade more of schooling to earn my ten PHDs and millions of dollars. Instead, I simply studied the material first and just took the test at the colleges and went for the more important and useful classes. It seems the little Magician has learned the same trick. Colleges do whatever they can to suppress the fact you can test out of the classes for free and earn your credits that way. And they call us the criminals."

"Very well Hermano, He can come to Santa Prisca. We need another magician around here anyway. A lot of strange ships have been seen sniffing around our borders and I don't like it." Bane looked out to see and grimaced as another boat sailed off in the distance. It was too far to shoot down and too far to chase but he still needed to find out who those interlopers where.

Chapter 8

"Statues."

Name- {Jake Han]

Title; The gamer.

LVL- 20

HP 1500/1500

MP 700/700

VIT- 30

STR- 25

Dex- 30

CHR- 20

INT-55

WIS- 40

LCK- 45

I beamed down at my States. I made them well rounded with a bias towards INT and WIS since having more magic then the other guy was always a good idea. I had doubled if not tripled all my states and confirmed my theory that leveling up in a dungeon was ten times faster then in the normal world.  
I think the fact the Instant dungeons were just dripping with mana had something to do with it. I had taken to training, reading and doing homework in them just to get my levels faster. Exhausting myself every day just so that I could be prepared the next time someone attacked me.

But even after all the levels up, bodybuilding, and studying I was still missing one key component.

Training.

I was missing the real-life experience that a proper trainer could give me.

Sure pounding at mindless zombies boosted my levels but facing facts, anyone could beat those thins with some time and planning.

I needed to find someone to properly train me to fight and not just self-defense like most dojos in the city did. I needed Self Offence! So a trip to one of the most renowned training areas in the world was in order.

The only issue was going without my parents shooting me down in a freeze ray. I could in theory just go on by myself but I wasn't going to have my villain parents mad at me. That would be suicide. So I told them my plan.

"ARE YOU INSANE?" I cringed at the sound of my mother yelling at me. Even with the new memories I had giving me a new and improved independent streak, getting yelled at by your mother at any age was terrible and terrifying.  
"Honey, please calm down, I think the neighbors can hear you." My dad tried to placate my mother, but she wasn't having any of it. She threw away his comforting arm and shoved him into the wall.

"Don't you tell me to calm down. Our son is going out to work for a Mob boss! Don't you dare think I haven't heard of Santa Prisca" she said, this time just soft enough that the neighbors might not hear.

"Mom, it's almost like I'm interning for him. Checking to see if I want to work for him at all. Besides, as far as employers go he's not nearly as bad as all the other options. He gives healthcare, 401k, and accidental meta enhancement insurance. And he works off an island. So, no need to compete for territory. Unlike every other two-bit crook in Gotham. Hell, do you even know how many employees of Wane enterprises get turned into the new Crackpot villain each year?" I tried to reason with her, but she was my mother and all parents seemed to want to make their kids choices for them. The only thing a parent ask their kid's help with is their phone or computer.

"But honey, you could go to work in Metropolis instead. I heard it barely has any crime at all so setting up shop would be easy as pie." Working in the criminal industry was not a deal-breaker or anything for my parents, it was just all my parents knew so it was all they could talk about. My mother and father knew just how far the criminal underworld stretched and that being prepared for it instead of being ignorant may one day save my life.

"Metropolis may not have much-organized crime but the number of Supervillains attacking innocent bystanders to draw out superman has skyrocketed in the last few years. The Death toll in Metropolis is almost as bad as Gotham. At least banes Mercenary corp is well outfitted and more importantly, it is legally a Mercenary group and Santa Prisca is classified as an island nation after the Cuban fiasco."

It took forever to convince them that my mind was made up and even more convincing for them to take an extra precaution or two for the next few years. Like hell, I was going to let my parents become another tragic backstory.

I even went so far as to buy an I.D panic room and an intruder alarm system. In the event my parents were ever in trouble inside the house they would be teleported to the panic room and be safe.

It had been one of my first purchases from the Abyss auction and I did not regret it one bit. Even if it had taken all the money I had in my inventory to purchase the system and install it.

Even If my parents stayed in Gotham for some unfathomable reason, they would at least be safe from the crackpot of the week's schemes.

Normally they were more or less immune from the local gangs since you don't want to kill the local scientists, medics, and realtors that were willing to do business with you.

My mother turned to me with a scowl before rolling her eyes in defeat. "Fine, you an go to Banes boot camp. Just please promise me you will be OK? I don't want to have to hear on the news my son died fighting some super villain or hero. And you must call every night." She finally relented. I felt so relived that I gave her a hug to reassure her I would be fine.

**Hello Everyone, this one is a little shorter but I realized that I haven't posted in a while so I wanted to get something out there. The next couple of chapters are going be training arks and introducing some characters that may or may not be future love interests. I got some in mind but If you have suggestions, by all means, give one in the reviews. **

**P.S I don't know why Fan fic sometimes turns my fics into illegible script, it just sometimes happened. **


	8. Chapter 8

**Santa Prisca Island**

7:00 am EST

"Alright, you Filthy Maggots. You think you got what it takes to survive this boot camp?! No. All I see are a group of Spineless little shits still suckling on their mother's teets. Well too bad if you wanted to back out now! You're stuck with us until your training is complete or your six feet under." I and the rest of the new recruits stood back straight-backed and stood there as Marco blared out at us for the next half hour.

The moment we had stepped off the boat they had tossed our luggage away, given us fatigues and started to drill us through various intensive exercises. All while Marco screamed at us for our inefficiencies.

Yes, Marco was a good guy with a great sense of humor, but he took people's training to the extreme. He was not willing to let any person slack for even a moment since that could and will get them killed in the field. Or he might have been a closet sadist. Probably the latter.

Up on top of a cliff, I could spot all the rest of the Bane marcs lounging around and watching us get yelled at over cold beers. If I wasn't seeing things, I saw a few bills being passed around as bets.

"I hope you brought your safety blanket kiddies because were about to get real." I and the unit gulped as we ended our exercise and got up off the ground.

We were already sweaty and exhausted from a workout that was already twice that of what most hardcore dojos did. They hadn't even disembarked the second boat of people coming in before we began our drills. The second group would hopefully share in our pain soon.

I may like working out and gaining muscle but that didn't mean the pain wasn't painful. Nor that it wasn't hard. All the magic in the world also did nothing for your waistline.

Gamers' mind didn't negate the pain, it just let me work threw it. The boot camp worked wonders when after the first hour I received a +1 STR notice. It was taking real effort now to gain any points and hopefully, this camp would help some more.

We kept doing drill after drill after drill till the sun that I could have sworn was just rising was now setting bellow the horizon.

"Alright, you little shits. We're packing it in after the next fifty reps. Overwatch 2 drops tonight and I'm not missing it to babysit your lumps. Also, this was only the intro course. Expect a real workout tomorrow. Jason here will show you all to were you will be staying." We all ground as we were shown our rooms. Many of us wish desperately we were not on an island surrounded by water.

[**Title earned Title**: Boot Camp Recruit.]

[**Boot camp Recruit**\- +50% Experience gain towards all Skills and stats when training in Santa Prisca.]

I eminently equipped the title. An extra fifty percent to my states was nothing to sneeze at.  
I flopped down onto the bunk and stretched out the sored muscled before conking out with the rest of my new training partners.

**Day one of Training **

"Keep Running you pieces of Shit I don't want to see you stop till all the weight is gone." Barked Marco from on top of a huge garbage truck. He was a tad irritable since his eyes were raw red and his muscles ached. But it wasn't his fault that Overwatch had been so good that he kept playing all night. No it was that stupid 'ClownPrinceLover 69' who kept taking frisking harassing his character all night and making him plan for revenge.

We were running back and forth from a huge pile of trash, picking it up and then throwing it all into the garbage container. Turns out that a lot of trash washes up on Santa Prisca and it was our job to clean it up. Which would not be so bad if the trash didn't consist of everything from a Fridges to the Kitchen sink. And we were not allowed to rest until all of it was gone. Some of it even looked suspiciously like alien tech.

If something was too heavy, then you had someone help you. If it was sharp you used some of the spares washed up clothes to pick it up. We just went back and forth for the whole day picking up mountains of dirty trash.

If you weren't paying attention to how you were lifting something, then you would exhaust yourself that much faster. So, I could not even let my mind drift, or I'd hurt myself. It was menial work but we were not expecting much on the first day and moving washed up tiers was certainly a good work out.

I have already been saved once by a white-haired girl with powerful arms who kicked me out of the way of a falling Anchor. Why was an Anchor washed up on shore with no boat? And why was it on top of a pile of trash consisting of old Bumpers and Plastic tables? Why would someone even dump something like that in the ocean? Why was it in the ocean?

The beach was just filled with trash to the point that all of us became subconsciously eco-friendly. No more would any of us casually toss trash into the waters and god forbid we see anyone else do it.

It was no wonder the Atlantians all hatted the surface dwellers if this is what they had to deal with this daily. This went well beyond letting your dog crap in the neighbor's lawn.

"ARGH" STR +1

I roared as I picked up metal, I beam that had been embedded inside a couch. When the thing started to slip from the sweat on my arms the same White-haired girl came up and picked on the other end. Since she was tall and BUFF, she was able to hold the other end easily. Even easier then I could if I was being honest.

This particular piece would go into the smelting pile that would then be used to make bullets, guns, and chairs. Taking something that was thrown away and reusing it. Later on, we would learn how to forge something using the metals we found into weapons. It wasn't strictly necessary, but it was little touches like that that made this camp just so special. Besides who doesn't want to forge their own swords and knives?

Day 7 of training.

"Bark, Bark, Bark, Bark" "Boys my dogs are mighty hungry and haven't had breakfast. Now, who's going to be lunch?" Marco said as he let loose the barking rottweiler.

Hanging under a metal bar just high enough for our feet to be a foot off the ground all of us had to maneuver our feet this way and that to avoid being bitten by the hungry-looking rottweilers. Our arms were burning, and our shoulders felt like they were whipped for hours, but none of us wanted to be kibble.

These dogs looked like they had been taking Venom themselves with just how massive and built they were. These had to have been some sort of enhanced dogs or mutants of some sort. Each one stood at least four feet tall and must have weighed two and a half hundred pounds. Even their teeth looked razor-sharp.

As one man found out when his ass got just a smidge too close to the ground and got bit on his hindquarters. The rest of us felt a mix of existential dread and fear while the rest looked like they might drop from laughter. I was mostly just concentrating on not falling and suffering the same fate.

Though I was a bit impressed by this Asian looking girl with a fluffy ponytail who had her legs straight in front of her. Her face didn't show any of the strain she must be in. No matter how loud the dogs barked she just hanged there with her legs perfectly straight. The sheer ab strength needed for that was impressive. Even by all of our standards. She had to have had gymnastics training of some sort.

A lot of the other people in our group were having a far uglier time of it. Only just managing to lift away when a dog got close.

**Santa Prisca Forge. **

Since this small island was far from the mainland it had its own forge full stocked with Power hammers, Furnaces, heat treating ovens, acids, metals, hammers and all the other little things we learned that could be used to make anything.

Out of the hundred or so new recruits on the island, only five of us opted to come to the forges to learn how to forge. The rest was just too tired to do anything that didn't involve their beds. And I couldn't really blame them. They were already well-trained Military men, but this island was just on a whole other level.

Even I felt that some rest would be welcome. But the opportunity to learn how to forge was just too good to pass up. I secretly always wanted to learn how to forge, but never found the time or opportunity. I loved watching videos of people banging away at hot pieces of metal and shaping them into new things. Sometimes things would go perfectly, and you would get a brand-new hammer or sword. More often things would go horribly wrong and you got a piece of garbage.

"Thank you, ladies, and gentlemen. You all have been wonderful student's. Let's get started and take the steel out of the forge and under the power hammer." Alec was a really great instructor and was the island's top man if you needed anything built or forged. He also personally had a hand in making just about every blade on the island. Most people here thought he might be a meta-human since his skill in the forge was almost superhuman. Because no way does a normal human make two hundred knives in just a week. It's not possible.

Following his instructions, I took the red hot of steel out of the steel and quickly brought It under the power hammer to shape it into a rough blade shape. I was going for a Kukri like blade with a pronounced angle on its bending point. Thankfully the metal stayed together threw out the process and didn't start splitting apart.

Again.

The last three blades didn't weld right and all the steel plates had split apart into a sloppy mess. But thankfully once I managed to get one right I got the Forging Skill witch became a subsection of my overall Crafting skill.

I love the crafting skill because I was a big crafting game addict. My phone had no less than a dozen crafting games on them and even in games like Skyrim I'd spend so much time just farming for ore to make weapons to sell off that I completely lost the main questline.

"Yo dip shit, you're bending the metal to harshly, ease up or you're going to snap that thing in half." I looked up and that White-haired girl from before was standing next to me with a hammer in hand and her own nearly finished blade in hand. An orange and black bandana was keeping her hair out of the way of the fire and her jacket had been thrown to the side. Revealing a figure that screamed Power. Her biceps alone looked like they could shatter boulders. In all honestly, It was rather hot. Literally, since we were standing near one of the forges.

I eased up on the metal and this time managed to make the whole shape without any crack forming. "Thanks, breaking another piece would have sucked. Names Jake Han, Yours?"

She sneered at me, but I got the feeling that was more from resting bitch face then from malice.

"The names Rose Dip shit. And don't you dare forget it. Now get your skinny ass back to the hammer before I kick you under it."

Or she was a massive bitch and that look was exactly as it seemed.

I took a deep breath and reminded myself that punching her in a fully stocked forge was a horrible idea and got back to work.

After another four hours of hammering, sharpening, tempering, and hardening of the steel I had my first fully-formed blade.

[Common Kukri]

[Made by Jake Han at Santa Priska this blade has been imbued a little with mana.]

+2 STR

+2 Dex

It was not the best blade in the shop but fuck if I wasn't proud of it. This was my first blade and it was even magical. The sheer feeling of accomplishment and pride in my work was almost unreal. There was no other way to descript it. More than anything else I was proud of this work.

The Crafting system in my powers allowed me to imbue anything I made with mana as I'm making it. Helping to give the weapon some power or boost that normal factory blades did not have. The process of throwing mana at the metal while you're forging it is fairly complicated and if I didn't have the system showing me when I was doing something wrong then I would have wasted so much more time.

Too much mana and the metal split apart, too little on one side and your blade develops cracks. It was complicated but with some practice, I should be able to eventually make some sweet weapons.

I was more of a club and cudgel kind of guy myself, but I could see the appeal of a well-made blade.

**Day 10 **

Ping, Zoom, Ping

Today we had target practice with weapons we assembled and maintained ourselves. "Your weapons mean nothing if they are not properly maintained. Even dead-shot would miss if he didn't take care of his guns every day. That being said. The person with the lowest score gets to run all the way around the island."

All of us were lined up at the shooting range and aiming at dummies that were hidden behind crates, doors, walls and anything else they could throw in there. They would pop up for only a single second and you had to shoot it down in that time frame or get shot back.

They were shooting rubber bullets but as the pile of passed out men behind me was attesting. It didn't mean they weren't harmful.

Unfortunately, I learned today I was a shit shot.

{Skill -Gunnery Lvl1}

I shot again at a green camo dummy and grit my teeth again as the shot pinged off the barrel instead of his head like I was aiming. Its own return file clipping me in the shoulder. -5 HP.

I had a feeling I was going to be doing a lot of running latter.

**Day 15 **

"Push you spineless Apes push," Marco said from atop the Truk. A tazer gun in hand ready to 'discipline' anyone slaking.

We were all gathered together to pushing the back of a large truck up a hill. Not just any truck but a fully loaded Semi-truck with all its tiers gone. So not only did we have to pull ten tons of metal and trash but also mostly carry it as well.

I was placed between Rose and the Asian girl from the bar exam. We all strained as hard as we could to push the dame truck just another foot forward. I don't know how bane calculated it but if even one person was not giving it their all the truck Would Not Move. It infuriated the lot of us, and any guy caught slacking was given a swift kick in the rear Ala Marco.

"I swear if I find out who the bitch is that's not pushing, I'll shove my foot so far up his ass that it'll come out the other end." Also Rose seemed to be good at colorfully insulting people.

Using my mystical skills, I tried to use my Ice affinity to cool the lot of us down a little. I wasn't very good at it at first and it only sent a small wave of cool air at us, but it was better than nothing.

I would have loved to use Telekinesis at some point to help carry the load, but it turns out that if you're straining every fiber of your body to lift something it's might hard to draw on the focus needed to use Magic.

Thankfully one of the guys on the side noticed that his partner was not nearly sweating as much as the rest of us and we quickly beat some sense into him. We also learned that Rose does not joke when it comes to making threats. That guy's ass was never going to be the same again.

But eventually, we managed to get the truck up the hill and unloaded the block while Marco laughed at us from the sidelines.

[STR +3]

[Ice Elemental manipulation increased]

**Day 30**

**Pow, Bam, Kapow. **

"Put your whole body into its maggots. Push through the pain and don't you dare stop attacking. Every moment you let up is a moment the enemy has to fight back." The instructor said. A ting of amusement in his voice as all around him the recruits were fighting at full throttle. "Don't just strike out with your fist, flow threw your attacks, chain them into one continues dance with your partner."

At first, he had beat stance after stance drilled into us and now, he was having us use said stances to fight each other as brutally as possible. There is no substitute for experience and more than one person had to fight threw a broken arm or missing tooth. Or else be thrown off the island with a said broken arm. With no raft. This incentive us to keep on fighting until the hour was up was high.

Most people can only fight for a max of two to three minutes before exhaustion started to set in. But in real battles outlasting your opponent was a great way to win a fight. In the course of this boot camp, we had increased our time by a minute each day. It was an exhausting experience but now we could all hold out in a fight for at least an hour before exhaustion set in.

I was never so grateful to have the gamer power as of that moment. And cures it.

Because the moment that the instructors saw I healed faster than normal I got hit with the metaphorical train.

Like right now where instead of getting a break like everyone else I got to trade off fighting with Jade and Rose. The two best students in the camp were using me as their own personal punching bags. Breaking my bones and using hits that would normally rupture something.

"Aww, is the little boy getting tired?" Jade said as she spun a kick into my head and craking something in my skull. My arms moving to slow to block her. The kick powered threw and nocking my head back with a _Crack_. Depleting my HP by what looked like a quarter. The crack in my neck healing over almost instantly but still disorientating me.

"Aw, fuck this," I said as I attacked with renewed vigor. I had to. My health was getting dangerously low and if she was able to hit me then it would drain that much faster.  
Defending and blocking could have worked as a way to regen some HP, but she was so nimble that her attacks just kept getting through my defenses and picking off more HP then I could regen. I needed to go onto the offensive and make her defend some of my attacks.

"Well someone still has some energy. I wonder how long you can last?" Jade smiled happily and delivered a surprise uppercut to my jaw and knee to my sternum. I kicked out with my leg, fighting threw the pain like the instructor said and managed to get a solid hit in her side by surprise.

"Stop flirting and get to punching Jade. I want to get back to smashing his head into the ground. Getting to pummel someone without having to worry about them dying is the shit." The blush on my face distracted me long enough for Jade to whip around her leg and send me flying out of the ring.

For whatever reason Rose decided that she either really liked me or really hated me because when her turn came up, I was mercilessly beaten so fast and hard that I could not even spare a glance at my HP pool to know just how much I was fucked.

The only thing I know is that having your face imbedded into a floor is far more fun (I mean Painful!) then cartoons lead you to believe.

Name- {Jake Han]

Title: Boot Camp Recruit

LVL- 30

HP 3500/3500

MP 1700/1700

VIT- 40

STR- 34

Dex- 40

CHR- 20

INT-60

WIS- 45

LCK- 45

888 888 8

**Hi peoples. The first training arc is complete! We got about two more chapters of training as well as some mischief coming. **

**However, I've been thinking about this Gamer system. I think I fumbled with using The Gamer systems instead of the one from Solo leveling. I hadn't read Solo leveling and absorbed its awesomeness till now and now I'm regretting not using that system since its both a lot simpler and makes the character notably stronger over The Gamer who just has a larger mana pool. Do you guy's think I should just continue my plan for this story or change it to use the Solo leveling system?**

**I think I might also just make a new story from the ground up using solo leveling as it's base. But if you all think the way this story is progressing is good enough, I can just modify it. **

**Thanks. **


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